154 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



indicus, they would still be so numerous as to require noth- 

 ing toward propagation but protection. Want of moral rec- 

 titude, indolence, and greed make up the modest sum total 

 of a poacher's character; and the sooner the class is forced to 

 work for the state the better, therefore our legislators will 

 please take note of the true penalty for poaching. 



SECTION THIRD. 



FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT. 



"Thin, o'er the wave, the quivering insects skim, 

 And faintly dip their pinions on its brim. 

 Winter its power has not yet resigned, 

 And yet, I fear, the weather is unkind. 

 But there, an answer to that doubt receive 

 A gallant trout! behold it, and believe." 



Here we see the fly-fisher wading a brook while it rains, 

 with shoulders protected by a water-proof cape, and extremi- 

 ties clad in India-rubber boots, with silk rubber attached and 

 extending up to the thighs, thus rendering the toggery light, 

 and so impervious as to keep the shoulders and feet of the 

 angler dry. The boy with rolled-up trousers represents the 

 ancient angler. He quietly contemplates and fishes in a 

 drenching rain, taking eels, catfish, and chubs in the pool be- 

 low the beaver-dam, never dreaming of a trout, when an ap- 

 parition wading the stream surprises him as the fly-fisher 

 casts his line, armed with artificial flies, quite over his pole, 

 and hooks a trout to his great astonishment. 



Fly-fishing is more indolent and elegant than bait-fishing. 

 From the streams on the Styrian Alps, eastward over Hun- 

 gary, and westward over all the vast empire of intellectual 

 man, wherever the lands are divided by the ornamental tra- 

 cery of trout streams, even to the mildly sublime Pacific 

 Ocean, fly-fishing is regarded as an elegant accomplishment. 

 To cast a fly gracefully, so that it will fall in the right place 

 like a snow-flake, or light like a winged insect, requires prac- 

 tice. The beginner should not attempt to cast too long a 

 line. Let him first try to throw a line as long as his rod, say 



