WITH TROUT FISHING. 163 



second barrel ; and, as for danger, Mr. Joseph Manton's gravitating 

 stops, which may be put to any gun, will preclude the possibility of 

 an accident, even admitting that you are so unfit to be trusted 

 with a double gun as to load one barrel without uncocking the 

 other. 



" 2dly. With regard to Snipes : It is only when they lie well 

 that you can allow them to finish their twisting; the greater part 

 of them require to be taken extremely quick, and the knack of doing 

 this constitutes the crack snipe-shot, who will kill a dozen of those 

 birds where a slow poking marksman of the old school can only fire 

 his gun a few times. 



" Having been thus far so rude as to criticise your work on the 

 subject of shooting, allow me to make the amende honorable by 

 giving you a useful hint on trout Jish'mg ; viz. For small rivers the 

 yellow dun, as made by Chevalier, is, in the long run, worth all the 

 other flies put together; and I can safely assert, that my sport has 

 never been so good as when fishing through the whole season with 

 this fly at the end, and a small red palmer for a bob*. A great deal, 

 however, depends on throwing well, so that the gut should drop on 

 the water before any part of the line, which is seldom the case when 

 our soi-disant anglers fish with their whole bodies ; and, instead of 

 throwing gracefully from the wrist, which ought to be done equally 

 well with either the left or the right hand, they labour like a person 

 threshing, and keep bowing like a candidate to his constituents at 

 an election. What is the consequence of thus flogging the water? 

 they frighten away the large fish, and catch only the small ones. 



lt With many apologies for the scarcely legible manner in which 

 the greatest haste and an accumulation of unanswered letters oblige 

 me to write, 



" I have the honour to remain, 



" Sir, 

 " Your obedient humble servant, 



" P. HAWKER. 



" P. S. One who can throw a fly well across the wind has a great 

 advantage in catching the large fish, as in this case the line, before 

 it falls, becomes for a moment suspended over the water, and there- 

 fore drops lighter than when thrown directly with the wind." 



* It would be ridiculous to lay down this as a rule for every 

 county. I only speak of the small rivers that I happen to have 



M 2 



