THROWING THE FLY. 113 



As to the motion, " not oblique, but fairly straight 

 backwards and forwards," if it be adopted, the 

 fly will pursue exactly the track of the rod 

 through the air, and should one chance out of a 

 hundred save it from being whipped off behind 

 (for the reason 1 have already given you),* and 

 the fly be missing in the position it was intended 

 to occupy on the water, you may as well look for 

 it in the firm embraces of the rod itself; and 

 there you will find it perhaps a mutilated corpse ! 

 Professor Rennie's advice is capital ; he tells us, 

 forsooth, to " observe some good fly-fisher" as 

 the means of learning ! as though good fly-fishers 

 grew as thick as blackberries by the side of every 

 river. 



Herb. — " First catch your hare," again I sup- 

 pose. 



Theoph. — You are right ; and, moreover, if 

 you meet with twenty good fly-fishers, not one 

 out of them perhaps can describe the principles 

 of his actions. Again, we are taught thusf, 

 "just as the line comes about a yard above it" 

 (the spot aimed at), we should " suddenly check 

 the impulse given by the wrist to the rod ;" and 

 to this is ascribed the advantage of the fly falling 

 of its own weight, " gossamer-like on the water." 

 As Mr. Shipley is evidently, from his book, a 



* See ante p. 99. t Shipley and Fitzgibbon, p. 76. 



1 



