8 BOTTOM OR FLOAT-FISHING. 



being equal, it may be safely asserted that the 

 man who " fishes finest" will also catch most ; and 

 if we would ensure the presence of the greatest 

 number of "fish diners" we must offer them a 

 recherchtf menu. " Tell me what your tackle is, and 

 I will tell you what your basket is." 



Nor is it only as regards the basket that fine- 

 fishing is to be commended : it is the only mode 

 of killing fish that deserves the name of sport. To 

 land a twenty pound Salmon or Pike by a single 

 strand of gut, almost invisible as it cuts the water 

 like a knife, is a performance to be proud of; to 

 lure " from his dark haunt beneath the tangled 

 roots," the pampered monarch of the brook to 

 raise, strike, and steer him by a thread like 

 gossamer through fifty perils of bank, bush, and 

 scaur, and finally to lay the massive beauty 

 gurgling on the greensward with the microscopic 

 hook still unshaken from his jaws, is a feat 

 which taxes the powers both of mind and 

 body to accomplish. But what skill or pleasure 

 either can there be in hauling out a miserable 

 animal by sheer brute force, with a machine like a 

 cart-rope and a clothes-prop ? There is no " law" 



