BYE-DAT BEMINISCENCES. 191 



of the habits of the quarry and is indispensable to 

 sport. 



The perfect knowledge of the area of sport is of 

 course an enormous advantage, and we must admit 

 that " a day " on a strange piece of water is, compara- 

 tively speaking, uninteresting, and our experience is 

 that we do not do justice either to the water or our- 

 selves, as, although experiences on other streams are 

 brought into requisition, every pool has peculiarities 

 which cannot be learnt in a day. 



How severely one feels handicapped when, as a 

 stranger, fishing a pool with another who knows the 

 position of every rock and stone which cause the sets 

 on the surface, or perhaps make no indication. Perhaps 

 the geography of the pool is explained, and one takes 

 it all for granted, being thankful for small mercies; 

 but in reality each must see for himself the bottom of 

 the river in clear water, and must have caught fish in 

 it so as to know exactly where they take the fly as 

 gauged by the sets and ripples. 



A good fisherman was never yet seen to fish fast or 

 hurriedly, for the very reason that he has so much to 

 think about, and it should not be taken for granted 

 that a man is idle while the blue wreaths of smoke 

 curl upwards from his pipe as he quietly wades a 

 pool. 



We much prefer not to fish at all than to fish 

 hurriedly, but to be forced to take part in an angling 

 competition would be simple misery. 



