CHAPTER IV. 



ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING. 



has always been, and 

 we believe always will be, the 

 favourite method of angling; and 

 deservedly so. Few who have once owned 

 its sway are capable of resisting its attrac- 

 tions. What golden memories of the past it 

 recalls ! What bright visions of the future 

 it portrays ! And when May comes, that 

 month pre-eminently the fly-fisher's, with its bright 

 sunny mornings and soft southern breezes, once 

 more, unencumbered with anything save a light rod 

 and small box of flies, the angler wends his way 

 to some favourite stream. Once more with elastic 

 tread he climbs the mountain's brow, and having 

 gained the summit, what a prospect meets his 

 gaze ! There, far as the eye can reach, rises into 

 the blue sky summit after summit of the heath- 

 clad hills, while underneath lie the grassy slope 

 and luxuriant meadow, the green cornfield and 

 waving wood, and winding and circling among all 

 like a silver thread lies the far-stretching stream 



