28 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



and letting the flies float down below where the angler 

 stood. Many an overflowing basket has been filled in 

 this way, when circumstances were favourable, or in 

 cases where individual expertness overcame what are 

 undoubted disadvantages in the method. But rivers 

 ran more favourably for fly-fishing long ago, before 

 the lands which feed them were so much drained; and 

 trout were more easily caught than now, from there 

 being fewer anglers to make them practically ac- 

 quainted with the difference between a real and a false 

 fly. It has been becoming yearly more and more 

 difficult to get a basket of fish with fly out of streams 

 which run clear as crystal during almost the whole 

 angling season. Mr. Stewart has therefore stepped in 

 most opportunely with a way of getting over this. He 

 recognises as the first principle in angling, the con- 

 cealment of the angler and of his tackle. " Surely in 

 vain is the net spread in sight of the bird," saith the 

 Scripture ; and surely in vain do you angle, says the 

 Practical Angler, if the fish sees you, your rod, or your 

 line. But how to prevent this when the waters are 

 clear and a May sun shining into them, if you have to 

 present yourself on the bank before the trout's very 

 nose ? There is indeed no way but this : you must 

 get behind the trout. Owing to his anatomical con- 

 struction, a trout never looks over his shoulder. He 

 lies with his head up the stream, and notes most accu- 

 rately anything that floats past him in the water, or 

 any apparition that is exhibited on the bank above or 

 opposite to him. But if you stand a little below, and 

 not if you are a six-footer too much above his level, 

 the chances are that he does not perceive you. In 



