ON ANGLING. 127 



water's surface, for that is the way in which the majority of the 

 real insect population presents itself to them. So you will 

 either carry your oil bottle with you to anoint the flies with 

 waterproofing paraffin before tying them to the gut, or else 

 you will have waterproofed them well beforehand by soaking 

 them in oil and letting them dry off. All these arts, as well 

 as the knots by which you should attach flies, both for trout 

 and salmon, to the gut, are they not recorded in the book of 

 the chronicles of Mr. Halford and many others ? It would 

 be too long for me to attempt to describe them here. But 

 a matter which I would press on your attention forcibly, 

 though shortly, is the great importance of keeping your 

 reel line in such condition that it does not get waterlogged. 

 The writers on fishing entomology often seem to forget how 

 much, in the appearance of the entomological specimens, 

 depends on this. If you let the end of the reel line, by 

 constant contact with the water, become waterlogged, sodden 

 and heavy, it will sink, and it will drag the fly under with 

 it. Always, at the end of a day's fishing, you should unreel 

 all such portion of the line as is damp and arrange it in long 

 loops over a chair back, or, better still, on one of the specially 

 made winders. In the morning, before beginning operations, 

 you should thoroughly grease it with the preparation which 

 the shops sell as " deer's fat," though I expect it is generally 

 grown on a sheep — any sort of grease will serve — which 

 waterproofs it and makes it lie lightly on the water's surface. 

 If I have had much fishing in the morning, I generally " f at ' 

 it again at luncheon-time, after letting it dry while it watches 

 me eat my luncheon. And then again at dinner, if I dine 

 before going out to fish the evening rise, I give it the same 

 drying and fatting treatment. It is treatment good not 

 only for the present purpose of showing the fly nicely and 

 thus deluding the fish, but also for the ultimate benefit and 

 long life of the line, which the grease seems to preserve. 

 A good old line, with all the kinks of newness worn out of 

 it and grown soft and supple, is too valuable a friend to be 

 put in peril lightly. He is a friend worth some cherishing. 

 I am in favour of using artificial flies a little smaller, 

 if anything, than the real. We have a natural inclination, 

 I think, to the contrary, as if we thought that the larger the 



