82 PLY PISHING, 



in piscatory matters was least rate equal to my own ; which I 

 never for one moment attempted to dispute, knowing well and 

 perfectly agreeing with Solomon, " there is more hope of a fool, 

 than of a man wise in his own conceit ;" so for the remainder of 

 the day I allowed him to fish on as he thought proper. The result 

 was just as I anticipated he caught nothing I nearly filled my 

 basket. Another thing I am going to observe, which is, that the 

 instant your fly drops, you begin to draw the line. Now it is 

 generally better to pause a second or two before putting your flies in 

 motion, particularly when you cast them on a smooth water. I 

 have often indeed taken fish on a calm day by allowing my flies to 

 be carried onwards by the stream, in which state they appear to 

 the fish in a wounded and disabled condition, and in that way I 

 have taken at least a brace to-day, and that from a part of the 

 river where if I had played my flies on the calm surface, the dis- 

 turbance my line would have thereby caused, must have put every 

 fish upon his guard. Sometimes also, in very bright weather, I 

 have taken trout by dropping in lightly over the near bank ; and 

 when the waters are very low, I have found it an advantage to 

 enlist a gentle into my service : the hook of the fly being run 

 through the narrow part of its body, as I also have a cadis by 

 running the hook through the head ; and I have seen a good imi- 

 tation of the gentle made with a piece of a white kid glove of a 

 proportionate size, with which some of my Devonshire friends tell 

 me they achieve a great deal ; but it is a plan I must honestly con- 

 fess I have never myself put in practice. But now as you have 

 repaired damages I'll detain you no longer. So suppose we again 

 resume our labours, in order that I may see how far you are in- 

 clined to follow out my precepts by your practice. 



Scholar. Do see how very nicely my rod plays. I have reason 

 indeed to rejoice at my late accident, to which it owes the correc- 

 tion of the former fault ; in fact no rod can now throw better ; so 

 that what I regarded as a piece of ill luck, has in reality turned 

 out a most important benefit. 



Old Angler. As do doubtless most of the events we are too apt 

 to regard in the light of our worldly misfortunes, which would 

 assuredly appear far otherwise in our eyes, were it not that our 

 vision is too limited to enable us to look beyond the temporary 

 inconvenience they occasion us, or to descry the views that have 

 directed an Almighty hand, in very love and mercy, and for our 

 temporal as well as eternal welfare, thus to inflict them upon us. 



