THE FLY-FISHER S WEAPONS. 7 



vigorous, nervous salmon, of amazing strength 

 and wonderful agility the rapid trout of darting 

 velocity, hardy, active, untiring, whose dying 

 flurry shows almost indomitable resistance, are 

 hooked, held in, wearied out, by the skilful and 

 delicate management of tackle that would, if 

 rudely handled, be warped by the strength and 

 weight of a dace or roach. 'Tis wonderful to 

 see hooks of Lilliputian largeness, gut finer than 

 hair, and a rod, some of whose wooden joints are 

 little thicker than a crow's quill, employed in 

 the capture of the very strongest of river-fish. 

 The marvel lies in the triumph of art over brute 

 force. If the sporting gear of the fly-fisher were 

 not managed with art on the mathematical 

 principle of leverage he could not by its means 

 lift from the ground more than a minute fraction 

 of the weight of that living, bounding, rushing 

 fish he tires unto death nay, drowns in its own 

 element. The overcoming of difficulties by the 

 suaviter in modo forms one of the greatest charms 

 of fly-fishing, and to my fancy is the pleasantest 

 element of success that can be used in any pursuit. 

 Persuade, but never drive. 



The baits of the pure fly -fisher are imitations of 

 insects in one or other of their forms. He fishes 

 with imitations of the fly, the beetle, the grub, the 

 caterpillar, and moth. These imitations are made 

 of divers materials, the chief whereof are feathers, 



