FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 9 



met large parties of men starting out for a night's fishing 

 on water that was supposed to be strictly preserved. They 

 wear a bag with two partitions tied in front of them, in 

 which they carry grubs both for baiting the hook and for 

 ground bait; they throw a few of the latter in at the 

 head of a stream, and use a large hook, baited with two 

 or three grubs ; they can bait this by feel in the dark. 

 Three or four men will do great harm in one night. 

 Where the wasp grub and another bait the ant egg is 

 much used, fish never rise at all well to fly. I attribute 

 this to the ground baiting. There are also, in the present 

 day, other hindrances to properly preserving club waters,, 

 which are well known to anyone who has had anything 

 to do with the management of them, and the keeper often; 

 arrives at the conclusion, and acts on it, that he has 

 hardly any real power, which is unfortunately too true. 



The number of paper, paint, and other description of 

 mills all over the country have greatly diminished the 

 fish in all waters coming under their influence ; several 

 rivers that were formerly full of fish have now become 

 utterly destroyed. I think that the sewerage from towns 

 also does much harm ; you seldom find many fish near 

 and below a tolerable sized town. The fact of that part 

 of the river being often the most fished is not sufficient, in 



