56 A DAY AT LOUGH MELVIN. 



busy arranging the heterogeneous mass of 

 back-line and foot-link, while the Parson, 

 who was much more tolerant, and now and 

 then did a little poaching on his own ac- 

 count, was giving them the benefit of his 

 experience, advising them to reserve the 

 large flies for the deep water, and to loop 

 the small ones on the in-shore end ; sug- 

 gesting the benefit of two or three swivels to 

 prevent the back-line from curling up the 

 foot-links, and many other little hints, which 

 the Captain, though he fully understood the 

 work, would have died a martyr rather than 

 lend a hand to. 



" Come," said he, " here are two boats 

 coming for us round that point ; put up that 

 thieving otter, and if you must poach, poach 

 with the cross-lines. It is some comfort to 

 think that the man who invented that ras- 

 cally machine is now an inmate of the Dublin 

 Lunatic Asylum." 



Why cross-lines find more favour in the 

 eyes of sportsmen than the far more sci- 

 entific otter, it is hard to say : they are in- 

 finitely more destructive and require very 

 much less skill. In this case there is no 

 float, but the back-line is attached to a reel- 



