DRY-FLY MEDITATIONS 79 



fish by one, by two, and by three, and that this only 

 proves that it is not so much the fly as the fisher, that 

 it is not so much the fisher as the fly, that only one 

 man could have done it, that any man could have done 

 it that it proves, in fact, anything which needs proving 

 on any side in any argument touching difficult fish. 

 And certainly matters do strike one differently in 

 different chairs and on different hearthrugs. But as 

 concerns the immortals, there is a weakness in the 

 history. The master's leash weighed but seven pounds 

 and three ounces together ; whereas the immortals, 

 as has been sttted, weigh, and must always have 

 weighed, three pounds apiece, which calculation will 

 show to make an aggregate of nine pounds. Also, 

 they are there now. Therefore, whatever the master 

 may have done, he cannot have captured the im- 

 mortals. 



No one, of course, has done so. Some have tried. 

 The author of this apologetic, panegyric (or whatever 

 it is) has tried. Also he has watched another, one of 

 the irreverent, trying. It is pleasant, says the poet, 

 from the security of the shore to watch others in 

 distress upon the vasty deep ; though, as a matter of 

 fact, where the immortals are it is not deep, but 

 shallow, which may have something to do with it. 

 But the simile serves well enough, both for the pleasure 

 and the distress. There is a coign of vantage just 

 opposite to the fish from which you can take this 

 pleasure behind herbage in a ditch. You get to it 

 by way of the ditch, and you conceal your head in the 

 herbage, so that you can see the immortals on a bright 

 day without their seeing you. But you cannot cover 



