TROUT AND ANGLING. 369 



shelving banks, or rocks, or brush, the only cover 

 for the fish being a green spongy weed at the bot- 

 tom, and so easily detached by a little too much 

 wind, as to be very annoying to the angler. In- 

 deed there is an end of fishing whenever this sub- 

 stance is inclined to float upon the surface, as we 

 have often noticed in this, as well as other rivers. 

 Child's River however, though by no means pos- 

 sessing the rural charms in which the fly-fisher so 

 much delights, or the difficulties which it is his am- 

 bition to contend with and overcome ; has no supe- 

 rior as a place favorable to the practice of the in- 

 cipient state of the art, particularly on account of 

 its freedom from the usual impediments, enabling 

 the angler to cast his fly without difficulty. In 

 this water we have found the same red fly already 

 mentioned, very successful, as also others of a 

 bright and showy description, which certainly for 

 sea-trout are the most killing. And here it would 

 not be amiss to mention the materials composing 

 this fly, and forming the great dependence of the 

 angler for sea-trout. The hook is small and of the 

 kind called limerick, ganged of course upon silk 

 worm gut, the snood of which may be the whole 

 length of the gut if used for a stretcher, but if used 

 for a dropper, either with another fly, or with the 

 bait, it should be but three or four inches long, and 

 the gut of the stiffest kind, to prevent its winding 

 24 



