32 Wet- Fly Fishing 



he makes a hash of it, either gets dis- 

 appointed, or else gets into bad, i.e. slovenly 

 habits. In order to acquire confidence in 

 this, as in all other things, progress should 

 proceed on slow and deliberate lines. Ever 

 before my mind is the desire to render a 

 service to the willing learner; and I wish 

 to emphasize this fact. The expert who 

 has experience, knowledge, and skill, if he 

 be not ungenerous (and few good anglers 

 are captious and ungenerous critics, ready 

 to lay hold on trivialities in any work like 

 this), will understand me when I say that, 

 perchance, even he may, in spite of his 

 experience, find something which he may 

 think worthy of a mental note; but I do 

 not presume to teach the expert. The keen 

 aspirant who really desires, as I myself did 

 at one time, to learn anything which may 

 assist him to become a good and practical 

 wet-fly fisherman, will, I hope, gain some 

 useful hints from these pages. A more 

 earnest teacher, I can assure him, there 

 can hardly be. A more ardent and enthu- 

 siastic fly-fisherman than I was for nearly 

 fifty years I can scarcely imagine. Eecently, 

 rheumatism has interfered with my beloved 

 recreation, without decreasing my desire to 

 forward in any way within my power, the 



