





in the slack of his trousers, sling him out as far as you can, and await results. 

 Fresh excitement can always be had by putting on another frog that is, fresh 

 excitement for the new frog. Hook a minnow through the lip. He will 

 live longer than when hooked through the kidneys, and he will have just as 

 much fun. 



Trolling is splendid exercise for the man who rows the boat; but the corpu- 

 lent man who sits astern and swears at his luck does not get the benefit of this. 

 Most trollers use a gang, which is an arrangement of ten hooks; but this must 

 impair a fish's digestion, and should be forbidden by law. 



Still-fishing is best suited to paralytics, convalescents from brain fever, and 

 persons who are dead. The sport consists in putting a hunk of bait on a hook, 

 flavoring it with saliva, and then lowering it to await the coming of some 

 goggle-eyed marine tramp in search of a free lunch. 



Concerning the Black Ply 



The black fly is not as large as the bull dog, but he can bite with both ends. 

 There is not a single black fly in the Adirondacks. All the black flies there are 

 born married and have large families. 



The black fly earns his living by raising lumps like the egg of a speckled 

 hen on the forehead and behind the ears of a man, who will simultaneously wish 

 that he could die and be out of his misery. One hundred and seventy black 

 flies can feed comfortably on each square inch of a man's ears; but the simple- 

 hearted natives of Maine, the Adirondacks and 

 Canada do not mind them until they settle down 

 nine deep. 



The lumps raised by a black fly will grow 

 seven days and then burst into a rich, dark-red 

 bloom, which is much admired by the angler 

 when he sees himself in a looking-glass trying 

 to shave. 



There are mosquitoes and deer flies also in 

 these localities, but they are mere toys to th< 

 man who is wrestling with several million free' 

 and easy black flies. 



Sometimes the black flies will swoop upon a 

 camp of anglers in Maine, and in four minutes 

 there will be nothing left but a few whitened 

 bones and the red pepper. 



Most tackle men sell various kinds of highly perfumed paste, which they 

 recommend for black flies and then charge fifty cents a box. These pastes all 

 have musical names and a brown smell, and the black flies are very fond of 

 them. The natives of Maine use tar-oil. A liberal bath of tar-oil makes a man 

 smell a good deal like sludge acid and sometimes like a turkey-buzzard, but it 

 does seem to lessen the appetite of very young black flies, or those which are 

 chronic cripples or invalids. But rather than go around smelling like a dead 

 Turk who has been kept too long, I will die in battle with the black flies and 

 save my reputation. 



V FLIKS 



