THE COUP DE GRACE. 43 



most cases when he sees it coming towards him from up stream ; 

 when, therefore, you are fishing below him, the hook, as a 

 natural consequence, is jerked further into his mouth, as 

 in this case, instead of being jerked out of his mouth, 

 as when fishing above him, and hence the chance of hook- 

 ing a rising fish by the dry fly method is infinitely greater 

 than when wet fly fishing down stream. 



It is a good fish, and so it will go into the creel ; but 

 how are we to kill it ? Knock its head ? No, there 

 is a better, quicker, cleaner, and more merciful way in 

 dealing with fish of this size. I still have hold of it 

 in my right hand, I turn the belly towards me and insert 

 the thumb of my left hand into its mouth, nail down, and 

 bend back its upper jaw and head towards the dorsal fin, 

 and in a second its neck is broken ; it is dead and inert, and 

 is not disfigured, and even if it now slipped into the water 

 the landing net would easily recover it. 



With any trout whose weight is under a pound, this, in 

 my opinion, is the best manner of administering the coup 

 de grdce. Bigger fish may, as the angler chooses, be 

 knocked on the back part of head, on the brain pan, and 

 for this purpose a " priest " is carried. My self-contained 

 butterfly net is a most handy " priest." Now we have to get 

 the fly out of the tongue ready for further work. 



I open the file (for sharpening the points of my flies) 

 contained in my knife, the end of the file being a disgorger 

 having a lancet face on the lower side with this I lance the 



