48 THE GRASSHOPPER, ETC. 



conduct would sanction. When the gut shall 

 exhibit a Gordian Knot affair of graceful 

 curvings — what is then your casting line but 

 Hogarth's Line of Beauty ? The rain in your 

 pocket — what then ? like money in the spend- 

 thrift's, it can't stay there. Patience, indeed ! 

 Take my word for it, you may do almost any- 

 thing, provided you have — what? — Patience? 

 Not at all — Skill, which presupposes Knowledge. 



The practice of artificial grub angling is not 

 so very easy as may at first sight appear ; and 

 if I pretend to instruct, it is from the joint 

 product of my own experience, and observation 

 of the most expert anglers with whom I have 

 come in contact. 



To succeed in this mode of fishing, fix to the 

 end of a fly line a yard and a half gut. In 

 low water and bright withal, let at least the 

 last two links, next the bait, be of the finest 

 and very lightly coloured, just to take oflf the 

 bright glare of white gut. A float, not much 

 more than an inch long, merely made of a crow's 

 quill, and a bit of the white shaft of any feather 

 that will fit it, must be so adjusted as to be 



