ANGLERS. 165 



away as industriously as ever. He is hated for disturbing 

 the waters, but his temper is perfect, and he is proof 

 against any amount of chaff. He takes the rough with 

 the smooth, and is certain of his reward in the long 

 run. 



Then there is the jealous man, who is always racing to 

 get ahead of you on the river, and when he gets there 

 will not take time to fish it properly, but hurries on to 

 anticipate you at another pool. An angler of this stamp 

 hates you if you catch a fish, and is not good company on 

 a river. 



There is also the unlucky man, who never kills a fish. 

 He and the fish never can hit it off, so as to be on the 

 river at the same time, or even if he does manage to 

 hook an odd salmon, the fly is sure to go at the head, the 

 line to get a hitch round the handle of the reel, or after 

 twenty minutes' play the fly comes back in his face. 

 What is the cause of this? Sometimes laziness, some- 

 times stupidity, sometimes want of faith a knowledge 

 that he is the unlucky man, which produces a feeling of 

 nervousness quite fatal to success. Nine times out of 

 ten we can account for the unlucky man's failure, but in 

 the tenth case we are forced to set it down to pure ill 

 luck. 



We are all familiar with the novice, whose rod is broken 

 two or three times a day, and whose fly, when not fast in a 

 tree, is hitched securely in the seat of his knickerbockers. 



There is the father of the river, the gentleman who 

 fished it for twenty years undisturbed, and whose indig- 

 nation when first his favourite pools were invaded and his 

 pet casts ravished cannot readily be described. Time 



