824 THREADING A NEEDLE. 



a gentler mode, not calculated to alarm quite so forcibly, 

 the sharp edge of the steel may often be taken out of 

 him, and you may negotiate your exchanges upon terms of 

 more equality, in case the booking-place is broken water, 

 dangerous with sunken rocks or other obstructions, as it 

 sometimes is. 



One of the most important points for the angler to 

 master is a knowledge of the hidden dangers, the under- 

 water rocks, &c., with which he will have to contend. A 

 person who possesses this knowledge has, of course, a great 

 advantage in playing his fish over another who has it not. 

 Usually you depend on your attendant to tell you, and 

 warn you of all such dangers. I recollect an absurd but 

 vexatious incident happening to a friend once on the river 

 Wye, near Builth, for the lack of such knowledge. The 

 river was very low, and ran within a narrow but very 

 abrupt rocky channel, a mere broad groove, as it were, in 

 the centre of its natural bed. At the tail of some white 

 water, my friend hooked a good fish, which immediately 

 dashed up into the white water, and came down again 

 close alongside of the near side wall of the channel, which 

 was very abrupt there. Presently my friend observed the 

 salmon, which was still pulling hard, struggling just under 

 his feet, whereas the line was pointing, if anything, rather 

 up-stream ; before he could do anything his line was cut, 

 and the fish away with his cast and some six or eight 

 yards of line. On going to the spot towards which the 

 line had pointed, he found a large stone under water, 

 reclining against the near wall of the channel, but leaving 

 a nice little triangular hole below, of which the stone 

 formed the hypothenuse; through this the salmon had 

 popped on his down-course, threading the eye of the 

 needle with my friend's line in the most dexterous man- 

 ner. Of course a little knowledge here would have saved 

 everything and captured the fish. 



