SALMON FISHING AS A RECREATION. 11 



beside you, and two or three of its trays out before you on tbe table. 



Water a bit higher than you thought, eh ? Haven't 



exactly the thing you want? (puff! puff! capital smoking mixture 

 this !) No, these "Jocks" are just two sizes too small. And that one? 

 Don't like the yellow of it too orangey, Turkey strips not pure 

 white-pointed, "Jungle" not bright enough. Ah! twist butt floss 

 oval-tinsel Toucan topping and Crow! Now then. And so you 

 get to happy, hopeful work, looking up at intervals to relieve the eye by 

 a moment's change of focus and to get an inspiring glance at the noble 

 stream below ! 



Where are your "notices of motion," your Committees and Division- 

 bills now? Where the mortgages, the conveyances, the briefs ? Where 

 script and share-lists, bills and notes of hand ? And what has become of 

 your prescriptions and mighty harassings, the daily rounds of fever and 

 mental worries? And where are those "editorials," that daily pile of 

 letters, that waste-basket, and so forth ? Faded away all of them out 

 of sight and mind too, thank goodness ! Smoke and din and dull routine, 

 head-ache and heart-ache, are all clean gone, and in their place have come 

 the calm and charm of meadow and purple moor, of ruffled " catch," 

 deep gliding pool and foaming rapid ; of birds and of humming insects 

 buzzing among the wild flowers and fresh undergrowth. Your mind has 

 just enough spontaneous energy to keep pace with the bodily forces in 

 healthful pleasure, and to enjoy the anxious labour of dressing or 

 choosing the fly that shall presently stir up a full fifteen minutes' glorious 

 excitement and yield material for oft-told tales and life-long reminiscences. 

 What do not those men lose who do not fish ? And as to fly-making 

 well, by that engaging occupation, apart from all practical considerations, 

 many men have been imbued with a fascination which has since 

 brightened too many dull days of their life. 



Any apology for the possibly tedious fulness of detail inseparable 

 from really genuine instruction on such a technical subject as " fly- 

 dressing " it would be too illogical to offer. Clearness in this case is 

 impossible without amplitude of detail ; an orderly system in progress 

 from stage to stage, as indispensable as in Euclid's " Elements." But 

 let the learner take courage. When first he learns the method and has 



