10 THE SALMON FLY. 



before, at the best lighted window of the " den " or library, saving 

 many a man from the task of " killing time." No wise man reads 

 directly after lunch, for reading then sends the blood to the head, when 

 it is required below. But "dressing" a fly will generally be found 

 no enemy to digestion and goes well with a chat, and perhaps even 

 with a pipe. 



And " fly-dressing " employs faculties besides those used in fishing. 

 In addition to the keen eye and ready hand, the persistent observation, 

 the care, endurance, courage, and patience required by open-air practice, 

 those other qualities are called into play, the training^of which establishes 

 for Salmon-fishing a true kinship with the Fine Arts, and supplies as 

 much of mental and moral discipline as may fairly be looked for in what 

 we are accustomed to designate "rational amusement." The "fly- 

 dresser" finds room for the utmost nicety of calculation in arrangement 

 and adaptation, as well as a field for the exercise of the imagination in 

 realizing symmetry, proportion, mobility, and colour-harmony. In short, 

 we have here a well-bred hobby not unworthy the attention of the 

 greatest amongst us who are fishers, whether Divines or Statesmen, 

 Doctors or Lawyers, Poets, Painters, or Philosophers. 



Having thus adduced some reasons why the piscator ad unguem (I 

 use the term advisedly) should " dress," or at least know how to " dress," 

 his own flies, I may well introduce an observation once made by a keen 

 man of the world. It embodies, I believe, the experience of most people 

 who are qualified to judge of the specific mental influence of fly-fishing 

 for Salmon and Trout. Fly-fishing has the power to bring sure and 

 unbroken relief to the jaded mind, with thorough oblivion to all else but 

 the sport itself. Its very nature seems to compel the entire attention. 

 As a consequence, therefore, the more we lay ourselves out for this 

 pastime, the greater will be the benefit derived from it, in the original 

 and best sense, a recreative agent. This consideration obviously gives 

 fresh life to my praise of " fly-dressing " as a complement to " fly-fishing." 

 Anyone can imagine himself under the following circumstances : 



Breakfast despatched and the fishing news carefully digested, you 

 have seated yourself at that little table in the window, looking 

 river-wards, in a capital light. Your box of materials is on a chair 



