FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 155 



be observed here is that through the medium of the 

 " Acme Wire-line " the novice may with a few hours' 

 practice, cast as effectually and efficiently as he might by 

 the practice of as many months with the old style lines.* 

 With reference to the degree of skill and proficiency in 

 the delivery of the fly, the talent of the oldest and best 

 fly-fishers varies. The real adept will adapt himself to 

 surrounding circumstances, casting over intervening 

 boughs and bushes, now over an impending rock or 

 boulder, or around some partially submerged substance 

 in midstream, or jutting portions of the river's bank, 

 without regard to any orthodox principle or rule. 



In short, a thorough command of the rod and line is 

 as essential and important as the wielding of the whip in 

 the case of a tandern or four-in-hand drive. We are 

 reminded by this analogy that the most skillful cast we 

 ever knew wielded the whip: we refer to the famous 

 Royal coachman, Tom Bosworth : Old Tom had, in the 

 early part of his life, driven three British Sovereigns, 

 viz. the Fourth George, the Fourth William, and finally, 

 for a lengthened period, Her Majesty Queen Victoria. As 

 a successful fisherman, Old Tom, when known to the 

 writer, was unsurpassed. He would often fish in the 

 wake of several rodsters, whose energy would exceed 

 their skill, and would extract not infrequently three 

 times their weight of fish, by skillfully and carefully 

 casting over the awkward and most unlikely looking 



* I have carefully abstained from critical notes, as an indulgence in 

 them would have greatly encroached upon the space allotted me, but I 

 cannot pass by the claim of merit made for this new copper-threaded 

 line, without expressing my fear that the laudatory paragraphs are 

 simply advertising mediums used to place a profitable "tack" upon the 

 market. 1 do not doubt that long casts may be made with it a 

 clothes line impelled by a sinewy arm would doubtless show a marvel- 

 lous reach but the delicate delivery of the feathers, which, now and 

 then, on a passing breath of Avind, will flutter as they fall, would be 

 sadly demoralized by the drag of this metallic re-enforcement of a reel 

 line. 



