SECOND DAY.] THE NATURAL FLY. 25 



POIET. He was too powerful a fish for my tackle; 

 and even if I had done so, would probably have 

 broken me by running amongst the weeds. 



HAL. Let me tell you, my friend, you should 

 never allow a fish to run to the weeds, or to strike 

 across the stream ; you should carry him always down 

 stream, keeping his head high, and in the current. 

 If in a weedy river you allow a large fish to run up 

 stream, you are almost sure to lose him. There, I 

 have hooked the companion of your lost fish on the 

 other side of the stream, a powerful creature : he 

 tries, you see, to make way to the weeds, but I hold 

 him tight. 



POIET. I see you are obliged to run with him, 

 and have carried him safely through the weeds. 



HAL. I have him now in the rapids on the shallow, 

 and I have no fear of losing him, unless he strikes the 

 hook out of his mouth. 



POIET. He springs again and again. 



HAL. He is off; in one of these somersets he 

 detached the steel, and he now leaps to celebrate his 

 escape. We will leave this place, where there are 

 more great fish, and return to it after a while, 

 when the alarm produced by our operations has 

 subsided. 



PHYS. That fish take the artificial fly at all is 

 rather surprising to me, for in its most perfect form 



