2 ANGLING SKETCHES 



pains. Others, again, among whom I would rank 

 myself, combine both these elements of incom- 

 petence. Nature, that made me enthusiastically 

 fond of fishing, gave me thumbs for fingers, short- 

 sighted eyes, indolence, carelessness, and a temper 

 which (usually sweet and angelic) is goaded to 

 madness by the laws of matter and of gravitation. 

 For example : when another man is caught up in 

 a branch he disengages his fly ; I jerk at it till 

 something breaks. As for carelessness, in boy- 

 hood I fished, by preference, with doubtful gut and 

 knots ill-tied ; it made the risk greater, and 

 increased the excitement if one did ho^k a trout. 

 I can't keep a fly-book. I stuff the flies into my 

 pockets at random, or stick them into the leaves 

 of a novel, or bestow them in the lining of my 

 hat or the case of my rods. Never, till 1890, in 

 all my days did I possess a landing-net If I can 

 drag a fish up a bank, or over the gravel, well ; if 

 not, he goes on his way rejoicing. On the Test I 

 thought it seemly to carry a landing-net. It had 

 a hinge, and doubled up. I put the handle 

 through a buttonhole of my coat : I saw a big 



