ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING 53 



there is perhaps none at once so satisfactory and so 

 reprehensible as that referred to by a late great 

 humorist, who, if not an angler, was the friend and 

 associate of anglers : 



" The flask frae my pocket 



I poured into the socket, 

 For I was provokit unto the last degree ; 



And to iny way o' thinkin', 



There's naething for 't but drinkin', 

 When a trout he lies winkin' and lauchin' at me." 



Everything combines to render fly-fishing the 

 most attractive of all the branches of the angler's 

 art. The attempt to capture trout which are seen 

 to rise at natural flies is in itself an excitement 

 which no other method possesses. Then the small- 

 ness of the hook and the fineness of the tackle 

 necessary for success increase the danger of escape, 

 and consequently the excitement and pleasure of 

 the capture ; and for our own part we would rather 

 hook, play, and capture a trout of a pound weight 

 with fly than one of a pound and a half with minnow 

 or worm, where the hooks being larger there is less 

 chance of their losing their hold, and the gut being 

 stronger there is less risk of its breaking. Fly- 

 fishing is also the cleanest and most elegant and 

 gentlemanly of all the methods of capturing trout. 

 The angler who practises it is saved the trouble of 

 working with worms, of catching, keeping alive, and 

 salting minnows, or searching the river's banks for 

 the natural insect. Armed with a light single- 

 handed rod and a few flies, he may wander from 



