CHAPTER IV 



ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING 



FLY-FISHING has always been, and we believe always 

 will be, the favourite method of angling ; and de- 

 servedly so. Few who have once owned its sway are 

 capable of resisting its attractions. What golden 

 memories of the past it recalls ! What bright visions 

 of the future it portrays ! And when May comes, 

 that month pre-eminently the fly-fisher's, with its 

 bright sunny mornings and soft southern breezes, 

 once more, unencumbered with anything save a light 

 rod and small box of flies, the angler wends his way 

 to some favourite stream. Once more with elastic 

 tread he climbs the mountain's brow, and having 

 gained the summit, what a prospect meets his gaze ! 

 There, far as the eye can reach, rises into the blue 

 sky summit after summit of the heath-clad hills, 

 while underneath lie the grassy slope and luxuriant 

 meadow, the green cornfield and waving wood, and 

 winding and circling among all like a silver thread 

 lies the far-stretching stream in all its beauty. There 

 is nothing to break the solitude save the plaintive 

 bleating of the sheep or the crow of the moorcock. 



