FIRST EMPTYING 25 



departed from the primitive customs of the brave days of old ; 

 he does not mind uncarting a tame stag after which the men 

 and women of half a dozen counties may gallop for hours 

 with a mighty clatter, to end with the peaceful enticement 

 of the terrified brute into another cart, to be carefully wrapped 

 in cotton wool for a few weeks until it is time for another 

 rattling burst, a kind of business about as unsatisfactory as 

 the consumption of claret on a large scale was to the farmer 

 who complained that he " got no forrader." He has brought 

 fire and brimstone into great lone lands of the earth, and his 

 partner, the modern shooter, has practically tamed his prey 

 and arranged a pretty position from which to bowl them over 

 by the score, the hundred, and the thousand. The angler has 

 done none of these things, because of his sheer inability to 

 coax the tamest trout that ever swam into anything like a 

 reasonable faith in man's sincerity. The knowledge of his 

 proficiency as an accomplished humbug remains instinct in 

 all fish. His implements are more delicate than of old ; 

 modern mechanics and unlimited means have combined to 

 give him tackle of a quality undreamt of even half a century 

 ago, but his methods are the same, and his blunders are just 

 as they were on the day when Noah himself looked up his 

 tackle and bobbed for whale from a window of the ark. 



DAPING. 



.When times get dull and the weather is hot, about the 

 middle of July, the bluebottle-bobber's season may be said 

 to commence, and very good fun it is if you can succeed in 

 catching the flies first and the trout afterwards. A blue- 

 bottle is no fool. The business he has on hand is always 

 terrific, and if his profits are at all equal to his returns any 

 ordinary business man would be glad to change places with 

 him for a week or two. Looking for a lost bluebottle in a 

 forty-acre hayfield is really an exciting pastime, and at this 



