TROUT FISHING. 291 



and walk the stream until there cometh the 

 ominous crack denoting that his flies have been 

 sent into space, or until the rod is broken at 

 the top joint while the owner is endeavouring 

 to break off the limb of a distant hawthorn. 

 There is nothing, indeed, for Mr. Briggs, but 

 an apprenticeship, and private rehearsals, say, 

 in a lawn or garden, carried on with the secrecy 

 with which middle-aged people endeavour to 

 acquire a new dance. Let him first practise 

 without flies, as recruits are made to fire oft' 

 powder without ball. It must be remembered, 

 that to be a good trout angler requires abso- 

 lutely more science in many respects than to 

 be famous for the use of the salmon rod. The 

 effects of the latter are on a larger and coarser 

 scale. Not that the art of salmon fishing is 

 simple, or to be acquired without much toil 

 and taste ; what we mean is that trout fishing- 

 is to salmon fishing what a delicate cabinet 

 picture is to a bold rough landscape painting. 



And firstly, the angler who condescends to 

 use worms for trout, or any bait save the arti- 

 ficial fly, is a mere pot-fisher, notwithstanding 

 Walton and other more recent authorities to 



