ON SOME ODD WAYS OF FISHING. 



THE maxim that one half the world does not know 

 how the other half lives, may, with but slight 

 variation, be applied to the world of sportsmen. 

 The "sportsman" is not of any particular class. 

 The highest in the land and the lowest may rub 

 shoulders in the broad field of sport. This is 

 peculiarly true as regards the gentle art. Wander- 

 ing by the side of an unpreserved stream, you may 

 see my lord casting a fly over this shallow, and, 

 twenty yards farther down, Tinker Ben seated by 

 the side of a chub-hole watching his float circling 

 round in the eddy ; and as the noble passes the 

 boor an honest angler's greeting may be exchanged, 

 and a light for the latter's pipe asked for and given. 

 It may be taken as a general rule that between 

 anglers who pursue their sport by fair means there 

 is a levelling freemasonry of the craft which is as 

 pleasant as it is right. 



Between the fair fisherman and the poacher there 

 is, however, a broad line of demarcation a line 

 which bars the interchange of even the commonest 

 civilities on the mutual ground of pursuing the same 

 object. The fair fisherman hates the man who 





