INTRODUCTORY 15 



him to do a fairly hard day's work and manage 

 both a rod and a fish cleverly, though he will 

 not require the same exceeding quickness of 

 limb, accuracy of eye and strength, which are 

 necessary to the greatest success in the finest 

 games. Quickness and delicacy of touch, and 

 a certain power of managing a rod and line, 

 akin to that individual cleverness or genius 

 which men show in the use of tools or instru- 

 ments with which they are experts, are necessary 

 to success in angling. The art of throwing a 

 fly well cannot be taught by description ; it may 

 be seen and watched, but it can only be acquired 

 by practice and a capacity for taking persistent 

 and well-ordered pains. An angler must never 

 be flurried by the perverseness of the wind, by 

 the untoward tricks which the fly or line will 

 sometimes play, or by the peculiarities of the 

 stream ; he cannot overcome these by sheer 

 strength, and he must learn to dodge them and 

 defeat them unobtrusively. Quiet, steady, intelli- 

 gent effort is needed to become a master of the 

 rod and line, to be able to do with them the best 

 that can be done. 



To throw a fly well is one step, and it is essential, 



