NEW PHASE OF ANGLING. 303 



accidents, or breakages in the varied requisite 

 appliances, and the ability to rise in the case of 

 urgent emergency, to adopt oneself to an occasion 

 of pressing necessity when thrown entirely upon our 

 own resources, is commendable in all circumstances, 

 hence our object in writing under the heading here 

 given. The accomplishment of being able to 

 creditably dress our flies may be, and doubtless is, 

 a pretty general one ; but anglers capable of splicing 

 efficiently a broken reel line, a smashed middle joint 

 or rod top, when in a position remote from competent 

 aid, are certainly not so plentiful. How much 

 annoyance, irritating waste of time and opportunity, 

 is often occasioned by a single mishap occurring when 

 least expected ; but upon the other hand, what is 

 gained by a little aptness in rising to the level of the 

 emergency, the individual practitioner alone knows. 



We are here reminded of an instance bearing upon 

 the points indicated, in which also was implicated the 

 late* Professor F. (the well-known lecturer on the 

 natural sciences), who had happened to be fishing the 

 same water with us, whilst wandering solitary at 

 will among the then open and freely accessible waters 

 of Norway, then, as now, a veritable Eden to the 

 piscator, a paradise not wholly devoid of penalties, 

 nevertheless as for the recognised monument of 

 patience to discover his stock of mild Honeydew or 

 Birdseye run out when three days to a week from 

 a source of supply ; invariably proves the force 

 of the compact between patience and tobacco, and 

 that disunion means a mutual collapse. 



