260 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



and float a fly over likely spots even when I do not 

 see a rise ; but although this plan sometimes succeeds, 

 there can be no doubt that what makes the real charm 

 of dry-fly fishing is the element of "stalking" that 

 comes into it. My eldest son, a very keen rifle-shot 

 and big-game hunter, was never really infected with 

 the microbe of fishing until he came here, although he 

 had had many opportunities of catching both salmon 

 and sea-trout as my companion in Scotland and 

 Norway. In those places the rumour of a bear, or 

 the chance, however remote, of an outlying deer, would 

 draw him away at once, even when the river was in the 

 most perfect order and there was a fresh run of fish. 



Here, although the trout are not large and the 

 chances of making anything like a big bag are few and 

 far between, he has become much more eager and per- 

 severing, for his skill and cunning are pitted in a pre- 

 meditated duel with a selected and worthy antagonist. 

 There is no gillie to help or hinder by his well-meant 

 advice, no boatman to do the lion's share of the task 

 of bringing the fly over the habitat of a fish in the 

 right position to attract him, no rough tumbling water 

 to make it a matter of indifference whether the cast 

 touches the surface in the form of an I or of an S, no 

 kindly stream to straighten out the coils and hang the 

 submerged fly at the proper angle. When salmon- 

 fishing, you usually walk by faith and not by sight, 

 and all the conditions tend to equalise the chances of 

 the novice and the expert. But in the clear chalk 

 streams of the South all these conditions are altered, 

 and if you do not give to the challenged the choice of 

 weapons, at least there are certain methods and lures 

 which are tabooed in all well-regulated beats. 



