250 GUN, EOD, AND SADDLE. 



river's margin, at a spot free from bush, rock, or 

 other impediment. The rod is carefully put togeth- 

 er (I hope it is a spliced one, for I shall have more 

 hope for the beginner's ultimate success from this 

 choice), the reel is attached, the line drawn through 

 the rings, and the cast and flies carefully taken off 

 his hat, round which they have been wrapped (to 

 make them more subservient and less obstreperous 

 on commencing work), and made fast to the line. 

 Ere an attempt at the first cast is made, take one 

 word of advice. Englishmen are so horsey in their 

 proclivities that they invariably consider a rod, when 

 first they handle it, an instrument to be treated and 

 used in exactly the same manner as a carriage whip. 

 From boyhood upward they have been used to the 

 latter, and the Englishman's hand has obtained won- 

 derful cunning in cracking the same. Now the two 

 motions are essentially different ; the one is perform- 

 ed by the quickest possible jerk, the other by making 

 the widest possible sweep, as free from angles as the 

 turns on a race-course. Get this information so 

 grafted into your brain that you will not be likely to 

 forget yourself, for on each occasion of this forgetful- 

 ness you will pay a penalty by being minus a fly, pro- 

 bably the trail one. I have known some persons so 



