A CONVERSATION. 383 



haze corning on ; now we do know what to pick out ! Here's the very 

 thing a little ' Black Doctor.' Look alive, it's time now, three minutes 

 is always enough. Cast over the middle of the rock, bring your rod sharp 

 round this side of it and lower the point for the stream to catch a bit of 



line, so that the fly comes in front of the fish at once. He'll have 



bless me, you are hitched up this time ! Don't pull, don't pull, stop a 

 second, you'll never get it clear, give me the rod, and just observe how 

 I do it." 



It is to be feared that, in these cases, the novice, unaccompanied by 

 an experienced hand, had better choose the lesser of two evils by pulling 

 the line with his hands for the fly to give way or be broken off. I never 

 like losing a fly, but would much rather lose two than my chance of a 

 "heads and tails." But still it need not be supposed, when the fly is 

 merely hitched up in a rock by the influence of the current alone, that it 

 cannot be cast adrift ; for the process of clearing to adopt, though decidedly 

 of a nature calculated to disturb fish, can scarcely fail, provided the line be 

 not pulled beforehand. 



The plan is to get the line well over to the farther side of the 

 mischief ; so walk back, letting out as much line as you think you can 

 switch, and, by the usual down-cast, send it out beyond the rock, when it 

 will be taken below by the stream while you make towards the rock. As 

 soon as it has been carried ten to twelve yards, hold on. If the strength 

 of the current itself has not the effect desired, lay aside the rod, and, 

 catching the line in your hands, say three or four feet from the point of 

 the rod, give a sharp, long pull. Should this fail, allow the line to be 

 carried down again while you walk ten or twelve yards below the rock ; 

 wind in spare line and pull as before. 



But for the purpose of our programme, let us suppose that the gillie 

 in question cleared the line from the snag, and that in two minutes 

 afterwards the little " Black Doctor " had met with a downright refusal 

 on the part of the fish. 



The gillie, let us imagine, was new to the neighbourhood had only 

 recently been engaged owing to his remarkable success in the South. 



" We have," says he, " not done much to boast of in this pool as yet, 

 and the dreams of a good day which we cherished remain dreams still. 



