362 THE SALMON FLY. 



again. It is really astonishing how many fish in the course of a season 

 can be picked up in this way on certain stretches hitherto deemed quite 

 inaccessible to rod-fishers. I know this by my own personal experience ; 

 and therefore in future it will be the sportman's own fault if with the 

 aid of the " Governor " cast he does not cover fish absolutely out of 

 reach by any other method as often as the necessity and the opportunity 

 may arise. 



The little party of quidnuncs soon afterwards broke up. Old Robin 

 led the way apparently engaged in prayer. He had been the most 

 attentive listener of them all whilst I was expounding the above precepts, 

 and now he was "snooving" off, "his lyart haffetS wearing thin and 

 bare," muttering to himself something about "the principle o' the thing 

 having been in his head for years, and was quite the idol of his adoration," 

 whatever that may happen to mean. 



Of course, this cast will be found available only in a clear space and 

 not in one bordered by trees or bushes. The fly placed inside the band 

 when freed flies through the air like a stone from a sling, and alights at 

 the farthest point the line can take it. The only element of uncertainty 

 to be found at all, is the strength of the bands in use. Bands breaking 

 on a steel yard at a pull of nearly 5 Ibs. are required for very long casts. 

 But so recently as the commencement of the Angling season of 1893, in a 

 series of experiments carried out on the river Beauly, I made two casts, 

 measuring fifty-two and fifty-three yards respectively, with bands pulling 

 from 3| to 4 Ibs. apiece ; and was present at some other trials on the 

 Tay when I saw fifty-seven yards covered again and again by Mr. Barclay 

 Field. 



Singularly enough the method has not proved attractive to the 

 angling public in any marked degree, though it was personally introduced 

 to public notice first in the year of the great Exhibition of 1851, and 

 afterwards illustrated and described in the Fishing Gazette of 1884. 



THE SWITCH CAST. 



I shall not attempt any laboured enconiums on an authority I 

 might almost say the one authority of his day nor endeavour to 

 summarise his time-honoured principle of switching ; for, just as the 



