Getting Out the Fly Books. 



abundantly.^ Not dreams alone. To the 

 observant angler, running brooks have in- 

 deed been books, and their stones have 

 preached him sermons, the notes whereof 

 lie in the pages of these same fly-books. 



Said a witty friend : " It is extraordi- 

 nary with what contempt your true angler 

 looks upon any method which will really 

 catch fish." The wit pierces near the 

 heart of the matter. Any method which 

 will only catch fish? Yes. The true an- 

 gler is not he whose pole is but the weap- 

 on of his predatory instinct. The love 

 of the art must be above the greed of 

 prey. With the boisterous fisherman and 

 the picnicker with a fishing-rod, we have 

 no concern. But among actual sportsman- 

 like anglers the manifestations of the en- 

 joyment of the recreation are as various 

 as temperaments. Each exaggerates some 

 of its pleasures; but he best realizes them 

 whose rod is a divining wand, who has the 

 widest sympathy with the outer world 

 whether it touch him through his scien- 

 tific insight, his artistic sensibility, or that 

 nameless poetic feeling which longs for the 

 sunshine, the wind, and the rain. We may 

 for a moment envy him who tells of great 

 game taken from some far-off lake, but our 

 hearts go out to him who bids us share his 



