134 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



less help many beginners to become successful 

 fishermen. I have, however, known men who 

 refused to try a difficult rise, for fear of losing 

 a fly. It appears to me that there is no logic 

 in fitting oneself out with an expensive rod and 

 tackle and then to hesitate to cast or not to cast 

 at all for fear of losing a threepenny fly. The 

 practice and efficiency gained in casting under 

 adverse conditions will sooner or later bring its 

 own reward. Keeping out of sight and casting 

 so that the movement of the rod may not be dis- 

 cernible to the fish are most essential points in 

 the tactics of the dry-fly man. Again, he should 

 never cease trying, and should go through every 

 fly in his book, as long as the fish is rising. I will 

 venture to say there are few anglers that are not 

 lovers of nature, and thus it comes that the fisher- 

 man is not dependent on successful endeavours in 

 order to spend a happy and, maybe, an instructive 

 day on the river. 



The water-vole is one of the commonest folk of 

 the wild that he will meet on the river. It was 

 not until the other day that I was aware that the 

 common brown rat is an inveterate enemy of his. 

 As I sat by the side of the Derbyshire Wye, not far 

 from Bakewell, a vole seated himself on a stone 

 close by. He stayed there some time, until a brown 

 rat which had evidently just emerged from a hole 



