THE SPEY CAST. 843 



Let us now consider the question of force usually required. 



The Angler makes no violent effort, he uses little force, and yet 

 brings the rod round quick enough to reanimate and keep in swing, say, 

 35 yards of line, so that it tugs the point of the rod as uniformly as 

 possible up to and during the time of the thrash-down. It need not be 

 said that the extra force employed in actually propelling the line just 

 while it strikes the water makes the tug considerably greater everybody 

 understands that. 



There is, perhaps, a little speculation as to how much force is applied 

 in bringing the rod back and round. In this one detail (so much depend- 

 ing on the wind as well as on the water) I fail to see the value of written 

 instruction from which the student could take his cue with any degree of 

 confidence and suddenly reach an immediate satisfactory result. The 

 very nature of the thing prohibits it. 



In such a contingency, having no instrument to measure the degrees 

 of force applied in lifting the line, how am I to estimate it ? The true 

 force is ascertainable by comparing various facts, and this is the only way 

 out of it. It is perfectly obvious that, in lifting the line, the proportion 

 of strain on the muscles used in the " Overhand " and the " Underhand" 

 respectively differs in ratio, neither more nor less than do the respective 

 proportions of strain used in the " Underhand " and " Spey." For instance, 

 in the " Underhand" the force is less than in the " Overhand," and yet 

 sufficient to compel the fly to travel about one half the distance in the air 

 at the rear of the Angler ; whereas in the " Spey" that force is so reduced 

 as to bring the fly no further than beside the Angler, or even a little in 

 front of him. Hence the proportionate decrease of force needed, and the 

 necessity for much more lifting power in the Overhand rod than in the 

 Spey rod. 



But taking any one particular condition of wind and water, is the 

 force definable ? 



This question is, I think, to be answered in the negative. It seems 

 to me to be purely an affair of judgment. But if by the comparisons 

 just made and conclusions just drawn from the three distinct methods of 

 casting the student has succeeded in gaining a clue to the amount -"of 

 force wanted, his study of the Illustrations will surely lead to further 



