The Fishing of Rivers with the Wet Fly 133 



memories, of a lifetime ; and that, too, at a 

 time when my memory is confessedly not 

 what it used to be. 



It will not fail to be noticed, in the three 

 chapters on "Burns," "Waters," and 

 " Eivers," that I have not gone on the plan 

 of other angling writers. I have not, for 

 instance, devoted several pages to teaching 

 the beginner how to throw the line, on 

 paper, because I think that such lessons 

 are practically useless. Fancy teaching a 

 young fellow, who was going to Australia, 

 how to use " the stockwhip," by written 

 directions ! 



I have seldom mentioned flies, gut lines, 

 and so forth, in describing how to fish pool, 

 stream, and quiet eddy. I shall deal with 

 all these presently. Where I have men- 

 tioned a few flies in the process of illustrat- 

 ing a lesson, and, I trust, thus making it 

 not only less dry, but more interesting 

 the reader may be sure that I have named 

 flies well worth taking a note of. 



When we were small boys, my elder 

 brother and myself were already keen 

 fishermen. He died in 1874 : but left 

 behind him a small but capital little work, 

 entitled, "Tod's Trout Fishing Guide to 

 the Streams in the Isle of Man." It is 



