ON ANGLING. 91 



II. 



A CASTING LESSON BY THE RIVERSIDE. 



AT the end of my former letter I presumed that I had 

 brought you, as " a commencing angler," to that state 

 of imperfection in which you were just able to cast 

 straight before you some twelve yards of line with no 

 gut attachment. You are worthy of one step in pro- 

 motion now, to a stage just a little nearer the real thing ; 

 we will fasten you a cast of gut — six feet or so will be enough 

 for practice work — to the end of the reel line. And here 

 again, since the drawing of the gut over the grass does it no 

 good, and gut is an expensive article, do not buy it new 

 for yourself, but borrow or burgle from a friend some of his 

 already used and water-worn casts. Every angler lays by 

 gut which soon becomes useless for the noble use of catching 

 fish ; but for lawn practice it will serve. Choose a fairly 

 fine tapering cast of something like the tenuity which you 

 will use when you come to the river, and attach a hook to it. 

 The hook may occur to you as a superfluity, seeing that you are 

 unlikely to catch any fish on the lawn. Yet the weight of the 

 hook, small though it be, makes a great difference in the 

 ease with which you may send the cast out straight. A very 

 little experience will convince you of this truth. It is just as 

 well, however, to snip or break off the point and barb before 

 beginning practice. The pointless hook can be easily drawn 

 back without catching in every blade of grass. Moreover, 

 it is more likely than not that you will now and then make a 

 bungling throw which will bring the " business end " of the 

 cast in contact with your own head, and should you happen 

 to impale your ear you will find it quite as amusing to do so 

 with a blunt hook as with one which is fully armed with point 

 and barb. 



