56 CHATS ON ANGLING. 



crack, and beyond our powers of persuasion. He would solemnly inspect 

 our lure, sniff round it, as it were, and then sink slowly down to his 

 accustomed place. He seemed to know all about it, so, intent on other 

 sport with the gun, we at last let him severely alone, telling the river 

 keeper to get him out if he could. 



One evening, as we were at dinner, there came a pressing message 

 from the keeper to be allowed to see us ; so, on ordering him in, a 

 a smiling rubicund visage appeared at the door, that of our friend the 

 keeper, bearing in his hands a dish, on which reposed the vast pro- 

 portions of " Lord Sallusberry," as he termed him, a tardy victim to the 

 wiles of patience, combined with the reiterated attractions of a green 

 grasshopper. 



Possibly this kind of dapping may be deemed to be a poor kind 

 of sport, and, speaking from a strictly orthodox point of view, the 

 accusation cannot be denied. But, after all, it has its merits. It enables 

 you, in waters where there are no May flies, to seduce the heavy fish 

 into unwonted activity, and into taking surface flies. Thus you remove 

 what are little short of pests in a trout stream, and you gain an interest 

 in overcoming the difficulties of an otherwise impossible situation. 



-.«-*i§""^<5a?^2_j^ 



