THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



will find no difficulty in casting twenty-five yards 

 of line, if the banks of the river be clear of wood ; 

 and if the wind be direct in his favour, he will be 

 able to cast five yards more. It is generally the 

 safest way to strike as soon as the sahnon descends 

 after having seized the fly ; for when he has once 

 taken it in his mouth and made a downward plunge 

 there is nothing to be gained by giving him time, 

 which only affords him an opportunity of blowing 

 it out again should he not have hooked himself. 

 In the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," article "An- 

 gling," which must have been written by a down- 

 right ignoramus, wholly unacquainted with the art 

 of which he pretends to treat, and, from the shame- 

 ful literary errors which have been permitted to 

 pass uncorrected, revised by a careless editor is 

 the following direction : "When you imagine that 

 the salmon has been struck, be cautious in giving 

 him time sufficient to enable him to pouch his bait, 

 that is, swallow it fairly or securely ; after this 

 fix the hook in him by a gentle twitch." A passage 

 betraying greater ignorance of the art of angling 

 was never penned. The doer must have read that 

 pike, when trolled for with the dead gorge, are to 

 be allowed time to pouch the bait ; and he sagely 

 directs that after the salmon has been "struck," 

 he is to be allowed time to take the hook out of 

 his jaw, then swallow it fairly and securely no 

 mumbling it like an old crust allowed ; and when 

 the hook is thus comfortably lodged in his stomach, 



