198 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



imitate the wing cases, on at the tail of the hook. Next tie on 

 peacock or ostrich herl at the same place, and wind the silk up 

 to the bend ; in doing so two strips of lead may be bound on 

 to the shank to give it weight. Then wind on the herl for the 

 body, and tie it off neatly ; bring the brown strands up to the 

 bend tightly, to form the back, and tie it off ; then tie a bit of 

 silk tightly round over all to separate the body and form the 

 thorax. Cuts of two artificial beetles may be seen at Plate X, 

 Figs. 5 and 6, page 219. 



ON WORM-FISHING 



There are two methods of worm-fishing one which I am 

 excessively partial to, and one which I care nothing about. 

 The first and simplest is the dolce far niente of trout fishing ; 

 and I know nothing more pleasant than wandering dreamily 

 away up amongst the hills by the side of some tiny beck, new 

 to the angler, with no sound but the plover, or the curlew, or 

 the distant tinkle of the drowsy bell-wether ; no encumbrance 

 but a light rod ; no bother about what flies will or will not 

 suit ; no tackle beyond a yard of gut and two or three hooks 

 in a piece of brown paper ; a small bag of moss with well- 

 scoured worms within ; a sandwich or a cold mutton chop 

 the latter for preference in one pocket, and a flask of the dew 

 " that shines in the starlight when kings dinna ken " in the 

 other. Far, far beyond all care ; away from rates, taxes, and 

 telegrams ; where there are neither division lists, nor 

 law lists, nor stock lists, nor share lists, nor price lists, 

 nor betting lists, nor any list whatever ; where no news- 

 paper can come to worry or unsettle you, and where 

 you don't care a straw how the world wags ; where your 

 clients are trouts, your patients worms, your congregation 

 mountain black-faces, water-ousels, and dabchicks ; your 

 court, hospital, or church the pre- Adamite hills with the eternal 

 sky above them ; your inspiration the pure breeze of heaven, 

 far, far above all earthly corruption. Here, in delightful 

 solitude, sauntering or scrambling on, and on, and on, and on, 

 upwards and upwards, from wee poolie to fern-clad cascade ; 

 casting or dropping the worm into either, or guiding it deftly 

 under each hollow bank and past each rugged stone, pulling 

 out a trout here and a trout there in the fair summer weather, 

 .. th now a whiff of wild thyme or fragrant gorse, and now a 



