364 THE SALMON FLY. 



future obliterates the past, many of these so-called settled rules of action 

 die out or vary in course of time. He himself, poor fellow, has long 

 since ceased to fish and to live ! But a letter in his handwriting, now 

 lying before me, would have us believe that " the theory of a cast is a 

 science, the practice of it an art." 



My informant, whose name and rank I am compelled to withhold, 

 laid down the grand principle, that the method of the Switch being too 

 rigidly inelastic for general purposes, remained for years undeveloped on 

 its strongest side. 



These judicious opinions call up ideas more enlarged than the mere 

 sound of words at first convey, for on attentive examination of the Switch 

 Cast, one will easily see how incomplete it is without the "Peter," 

 which, though young, was not discovered yesterday. 



Modern Anglers would hardly credit the countless improvements in 

 ways and means of casting which have only recently been more or less 

 adopted ; but it would be interesting indeed were we able to trace the 

 progress of each art through its stages from the classic days of Walton 

 right up to the commanding position it occupies at the present time. 



In the case of the "Overhand," what do we find? As practised 

 from a time (which may be called immemorial since no one can fix a date 

 " to the contrary ") the system of throwing with a light line and fine- 

 pointed rod -scarcely lingers in the Angling mind now ; indeed, the 

 old-fashioned method is almost forgotten. With other appliances the 

 " Overhand " still holds its ground. 



But doubtful as the policy of the " Switch " was, save on an emer- 

 gency, no one can say that the scientific founder of it did not trust to 

 reason, nor that the wise reformers of the method trusted only to 

 imagination. No discovery of a system of casting is made without some 

 previous conjectural effort of the mind, nor is any amendment in principle 

 inculcated without some exertion of the reasoning faculties. Practical 

 experiment should do the rest. No doubt that in the case of the 

 " Switch " the one chief object was the discovery of truth, and this has, 

 in my opinion, been undoubtedly attained. 



Say what we can of the " Switch," the cast will never hold its own 

 in a race with the " Spey." The " Spey " would give the " Switch " a 



