123 WA TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



sign an affidavit in verification of this assertion, but he 

 certainly has in his greasy pocket-book a large collection 

 of long grey horsehairs, and furs and feathers innumerable. 



Do not be too haughty to believe that a few expeditions 

 with a man like this are worth any quantity of mere theory, 

 and that it is always best to follow his advice when once 

 you are convinced that he is to be trusted. That is a 

 principle I have never found to fail. You may be learned 

 in piscatorial lore, may be an old stager at the waterside, 

 may be in all ways an adept admitted and proved ; but a 

 practised native, though he reads not neither can he write, 

 will be your master on his own ground. 



Thus, though my book contained the most approved 

 flies used in Herefordshire, Derbyshire, and Hampshire (all 

 first-class grayling counties), I without hesitation took the 

 keeper's tiny, artistic hackles, and in the course of a few 

 days proved by practical experience the infinite superiority 

 of his knowledge and wisdom. I fancy the best Wharfe 

 fly-makers live at Otley. Their brown owl is a killing fly ; 

 so is the little hackle termed a fog black. Partridge and 

 woodcock hackles and a black gnat are favourites, and you 

 never see a native's cast that does not possess a pretty 

 hackle made of the under wing of the snipe with body of 

 straw-coloured silk. 



" Fish in the eye of a stream, sir," our keeper advises ; 

 and he shows us how to do it, by dropping his flies like 

 snow flakes across where the water scrambles over the 

 stones previous to a drop and sweep into deeper volume. 



" Grayling are like women, sir you never know what to 

 be about with them," he sagely remarked. By this our 

 Yorkshire guide showed that he had studied well the 



