322 IMPLEMENTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



not too deep, or in his boat if it be too broad to be cast over 

 successfully. 



First he shall go down stream ; for the motion of the water 

 will so keep his line taut, the benefit of which hereafter ; and he 

 will also have fewer casts to make^ and find less trouble in 

 giving a natural and easy movement to the artificial insect 

 which he must keep ever floating on the surface. Furthermore, 

 the fish are wont to lie, especially in swift waters, with their 

 heads up stream, and will therefore perhaps take the fly most 

 readily when cast down, and drawn gently over them. 



Secondly, he must on no account fish with the sun behind 

 his back, for, if he do, the shadow of his body, with his arms 

 thrashing the air, and the counterfeit presentment of his long 

 rod vibrating aloft, will be thrown on the bright surface of 

 the waters in such a manner as will undoubtedly alarm the 

 fish ; which, however much doubt there may exist as to their 

 powers of auscultation, no one will deny to be capable of quick 

 vision. 



Thirdly, he shall not so draw his fly along the surface as to 

 give it the appearance or reality of floating up stream, for flies 

 do not in nature float up stream ; nor do the Trout or Salmon, 

 although they may never have studied logic, and are probably 

 incapable of deducing consequences from causes, lack the ability 

 to discern what is, from what is not natural. 



Across the stream he may bring it gently and coquettishly 

 home, with a slow whirling rotatory motion, letting it swim 

 down in the swifter whirls of the stream, and float round and 

 round in the eddies, with this special observance, that he shall, 

 in so far as he can, keep it ever at the end of a tight line, for 



