34 FISHERMEN 



or in well-defined areas ; which is to say, 

 that the trout is possessed of a deep 

 knowledge of entomology and a fine 

 discretion in the matter of taste. And 

 although that faith has been attacked, 

 undermined, and denounced as a de- 

 lusion, an unreal thing begotten of the 

 tackle - maker or the superstitious ; al- 

 though Herbert Spencer went for it 

 with his accustomed vigour, and be- 

 queathed it to Mr Lang and others to 

 finally extinguish; although most mod- 

 ern anglers are heterodox enough to spell 

 that faith with a small f and to boldly 

 contend that, equipped with half a dozen 

 flies or so, one may, with proper skill, 

 catch as many trout (or salmon) as he who 

 invades the riverside with the contents 

 of a small tackle-shop and a section of his 

 fishing library, the faith still lives. 



Few of us when on a fishing holiday 

 can resist a pilgrimage to the musty little 

 shop generally of stationery, iron- 



