115 



It is an outrag'e upon our art of dry-fly angling; but tlie 

 jirovocation is undoubtedly great, when the river is alive 

 with tailing fish, and they will look at nothing on the sur- 

 face, however tempting in pattern and however skilfully 

 presented. There have been times in which my valedictory 

 notes on the closing season have been written with a sense 

 of self-satisfaction, and a consciousness that the depleted 

 river deserved a rest ; but no such feelings animate me at 

 the present moment, for the season just closed has been the 

 worst I have known in the past twenty-five years, notwith- 

 standing that the stock of trout in the river was never so 

 great as it is at the present time. 



