THE GENTLE ART OF ANGLING. 



CHAPTER I 

 GUDGEON AND ROACH. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



I AMATEUR angling is primarily a 

 $ distraction. As such it fulfils 

 a purpose which all innocent 

 pleasures are intended to sub- 

 serve. It takes one amongst 

 green fields and by the side of 

 restful rivers where the jar and 

 clash of business life are forgotten 

 in the hush of Nature's gentle 

 mood. In this respect it effects 

 detachment from the hard, matter- 

 of-fact pursuits in which most of 

 us are compelled to engage^/ 



To the busy man rest is not 

 always holiday ; to the man with- 

 out a hobby retirement frequently 

 shortens the span of life. An 

 object to pursue is, as a rule, 

 essential to the strenuous life, and 

 the range of angling is so wide 

 that some branch of it can be 

 easily acquired which healthfully 

 brings into play forces so accus- 

 tomed to movement that they are 

 disposed to chafe under inactivity. 

 In an address to medical men 

 on the preservation of their 

 health, reported some time ago 

 in the British Medical Journal, the 

 following advice is given : 

 " Every medical man, if possible, 

 should have an outdoor sport of 

 some kind ; golf and cycling are 

 good, but perhaps the best of all 

 is fly-fishing. It takes one usually 



into beautiful country ; the exer- 

 cise is gentle and varied ; the 

 interest is absorbing, and to my 

 mind is far better for the jaded 

 practitioner than scampering half 

 ovr Europe in a hurry." 

 ^.Angling, "thaiiiW in addition 



to being a recreation, fulfils a 

 physical purpose. Those who 

 pursue it corroborate the fact. 

 Fly-fishing especially is healthy 

 gymnastic exercise which brings 

 not only the muscles of the arms 

 into play, but also the chesD An 

 example may be cited. Ayouth 

 with hereditary tendencies to con- 

 sumption was medically examined 

 and declared to be abnormally 

 flat-chested. Out-of-door exer- 

 cise was prescribed, and he took 

 to salmon-fishing, spending four 

 or five consecutive weeks by the 

 river, and as many odd days as 

 possible. Ten years afterwards 

 he was down with influenza, and 

 another doctor, who knew nothing 

 of his history, exclaimed, on 

 sounding him, " What a well- 

 developed chest you have ! Very 

 rare in a man of sedentary habits." 

 He told his story, and the doctor 

 agreed that he owed it to the rod- 

 casting exercise. It may give 

 point to the story to add that it is 

 a chapter out of the writer's own 

 biography. 



