20G THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



very prettily done; sharp for another fly; here, you have 

 it upon your coat; the very air is getting thick with flies. 

 Ah ! the sun is now obscured by passing vapors ; stay 

 your hand ; now for the artificial. Art before nature, 

 when there is a lively chance of its being successful. 

 Here we have our floating favorite, the Canadian wood- 

 duck-winged Drake, with hollow wheaten straw body, 

 let's have him on. Now for business. Away surges the 

 line, the further extremity of which no sooner touches 

 the water than it is seized, and you have an antagonist 

 who, in the tug which immediately ensues, proves worthy 

 of your steel. The first terrific wrench he gives the rod 

 and tackle as he dashes majestically away, shows him to 

 be the tyrant of the length hereabouts. Did you not 

 courteously yield to his wild and indignant rush with 

 faint reserve, the fight would be brought to an abrupt 

 conclusion, for had your tackle thrice the strength it has 

 in reality, grim force would be utterly futile. Play upon 

 him by placing a heavy strain upon the rod, allow him to 

 steal his lengths heavily, and more heavily, in his frantic 

 efforts to escape, ever keeping a look-out for mischief, 

 such as sunken timber, roots, and sticks, to avoid which 

 the heaviest strain the line is capable of standing must 

 be put upon him, or he will prove victor, and will vanish 

 with his spoils, consisting of several yards of choice gut, 

 and perhaps your last artificial, which, though they may 

 desperately encumber him, are not to be recovered. 

 Exercise, therefore, your judgment and ingenuity, and 

 his natural cunning will be put to rout. Time is no 

 especial object in a fight of this description ; every wan- 

 ing minute is a minute gained ; the heavier the fish the 

 longer the time to be expended over him. According to 

 the poundage of a trout, as a rule, the sport he gives ex- 

 tends over an equal number of minutes, though, in a 

 case like this, "each seems an hour." These disjointed 

 sentences escape us as the scene is prolonged. Now, how- 



