en wr. vi. Keeping Out of Sight. 77 



throughout, ami something Learnt therefrom of the manners ami 

 customs of tin' Bcaly aborigines. lint it should always be 

 remembered that two can play at that game. It' you can sec the 

 fish easily, so too can he sec y<m, ami much more easily than you 

 (in see him. He has every advantage over you. Though I have 

 twice touched passingly on this suhjeet already (pages :!'.», 41, 42), 

 it is well worthy to be gone thoroughly into, because it is at the 

 very bottom of all good fishing, cannot well be made too much of, 

 and finds proper place here on remarks how to fish. The very 

 Bret principle, the most important rule of fishing, is to keep well 

 out of sight, and to accomplish this end too much pains can 

 scarcely be taken. Again and again have I urged this as the 

 main secret, on brothers of the angle, who questioned how on earth 

 I managed to get my basket so full of trout. But again and 

 again have I found that all the same they have only half 

 admitted its force, concluding, ostrich-like, that because they 

 could not see the fish, the fish could not see them. I feel, 

 therefore, from the experience aforesaid, that it is almost a 

 hopeless task to convert my reader from the general neglect of 

 this maxim, to a thorough belief in the all importance of 

 keeping it constantly in view, and of acting up to it with the 

 amount of painstaking care that is necessary to command 

 success. Indeed, I find I constantly have to be taking my own 

 self to task for not being sufficiently careful in the matter, 

 thoroughly though I believe in, and practice what I preach. 



Properly to appreciate the necessity for exercising unusual pains 

 to keep out of sight it is as well to consider the facilities which the 

 fish has for seeiug. To begin with, its sight is, I believe, as good 

 as ours, perhaps keener, for the formation of its eye is said to be 

 very good ; and it is natural that it should be, for it is, of all others, 

 the sense on which it is mainly dependent for its existence, and with 

 what rapidity it sees the minutest objects passing in the water a 

 Little observation will soon show. Caeteris paribus then, it ought 

 to see us as quickly as we see it. But other things are 

 not equal by any means. It has great advantages of size, 

 colour, position, and element, of all of which it naturally avails 

 itself. It is not a tenth of the size of a man, and in mutual 

 observations the larger object is obviously calculated to be seen 

 first. Then its colour, like that of most, I may say all, animals, is 



