108 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
of Angling’ burst upon the world since all the foregoing 
works appeared, of course hits upon a combination the 
very worst possible, and one which would be tolerably 
certain to lose three out of every four fish run—z.e., one 
small hook, extra fine in the wire! The ‘member for 
Finsbury, as this author, with the detestable slang 
which some modern writers appear to think funny, calls 
the Trout, would certainly let Mr. Moffat into at least 
one angling secret with which he is at present unac- 
quainted, if he were to appear on the banks of the 
Tweed, or the Spean, armed with such an apparatus. 
“Tt will thus be seen that a ‘single hook’ for Trout 
worm-fishing has been hitherto universally recom- 
mended by angling authorities, with, as 
I before stated, a solitary exception, 
and that is Mr. Stewart, who, in his 
‘Practical Angler,’ boldly deviates from 
the beaten track, and gives a diagram 
(of which, for the sake of clearness, a 
facsimile is appended) of a tackle com- 
posed of four small hooks, in lieu of the 
conventional single large one. I give 
Mr. Stewart the greatest credit for the 
originality of this idea, which belongs to 
him alone ; at the same time, I am not 
surprised at its proving, as he himself 
admits, only a modified success, Mr. 
ea a Stewart says that with this tackle he 
found he could kill larger fish, but 
fewer in number, than with the single hook, and that 
this experience was confirmed by others. He attri- 
butes, and I have no doubt correctly, the diminution in 
