SYSTEM VERSUS CHANCE. 5 



novice could follow it successfully, cobblers' wax is often condemned 

 because of the trouble caused in using it. 



There are pre-eminently three matters in which I believe Salmon- 

 anglers would reap much benefit from " system." (1) The style of rod. 

 (2) The modes of " casting." (3) The construction and choice of flies. 

 In the first and third of these especially the principles we have mastered 

 by observation and experiment have yet to be applied far more fully than 

 is ordinarily the case, and with far stricter regard to the precise objects 

 in view. In the following Chapters I have sought not only to point out 

 the road to success, but also to move some little way along that road. 

 The Chapter on the " Kod " does not call for preliminary comment here ; 

 and as to the modes of " casting," illustrated and described in Chapter 

 VII., I would only remark that, as their efficiency depends on obedience 

 to certain primary laws of mechanics, the directions for making each 

 "cast" should be minutely followed. Failure to accomplish them will 

 ensue, not because some peculiar "knack" or " dodge " has remained 

 undisclosed, but because some rational condition remains unfulfilled. To 

 see precisely, and at first sight, what has to be done, greatly helps a man 

 towards the right way of doing it. In such a thing as learning by book- 

 instruction how to "cast," it is necessary that not only the "WHY" 

 and the "WHEREFORE" should be explained, but also the "How." 

 And this I have striven to do in the following pages. 



It is in the choice of flies that so much yet remains to be done in 

 the way of observation and experiment. Here for the most part we have 

 to make our own science, before we can apply it. The facts we must 

 build on are the habits and tastes of the Salmon, as affected by the 

 variety of his natural surroundings, the predisposition he evinces for 

 certain shades of colour and certain types of flies, the variations of water 

 and weather, and above all by the mischief brought about by the 

 preceding efforts of Fishermen destitute of all practical knowledge. 



Men call Salmon " capricious " ; but is not the term a cover for their 

 own ignorance about the habits of the fish and the flies they show them, 

 rather than the truthful representation of facts? No one has proved 

 wanton inconsistency on the part of the fish. We may depend on it. 

 that Salmon instinctively and undeviatingly act according to certain 



