4 ANGLING SKETCHES 



fields, wherever I had the luck. I never tie nor 

 otherwise fasten the joints of my rod ; they often 

 slip out of the sockets and splash into the water. 

 Mr. Hardy, however, has invented a joint-fastening 

 which never slips. On the other hand, by letting 

 the joint rust, you may find it difficult to take 

 down your rod. When I see a trout rising, I 

 always cast so as to get hung up, and I frighten 

 him as I disengage my hook. I invariably fall in 

 and get half-drowned when I wade, there being an 

 insufficiency of nails in the soles of my brogues. 

 My waders let in water, too, and when I go out to 

 fish I usually leave either my reel, or my flies, or 

 my rod, at home. Perhaps no other man's average 

 of lost flies in proportion to taken trout was ever 

 so great as mine. I lose plenty, by striking 

 furiously, after a series of short rises, and breaking 

 the gut, with which the fish swims away. As to 

 dressing a fly, one would sooner think of dressing 

 a dinner. The result of the fly-dressing would 

 resemble a small blacking-brush, perhaps, but 

 nothing entomological. 



Then why, a persevering reader may ask, do I 



