4 IGNORANCE OF ANGLING. 



he who has learned the practice of fly-fishing will 

 readily learn the two other branches of angling. 

 If the reader should desire to be more methodical 

 than I am, he has the power of being so, by read- 

 ing this hand-book as if it were written in Hebrew. 



o 



He will then find the last first, and the first last. 

 If he wishes for slow, but sure advancement, let 

 him reverse the order of reading, moving from the 

 back rank to the centre, and so on to the front. 



The long-continued, unbroken chain of igno- 

 rance that runs, in some instances, through the 

 world is almost incomprehensible to the active 

 mind. It is a miracle of visible darkness amidst 

 the intelligence that surrounds us. " The dic- 

 tionary-making pensioner," as Cobbett used to 

 call Dr. Samuel Johnson, defined angling, as a 

 silly thing, practised by a fool at one end of a rod 

 and line, and a worm at the other. Many stupid 

 people still adhere to this very stupid definition. 

 With the practice of angling they associate no- 

 thing beyond worms, punts, patience, a nibble 

 and tittle-bat sport. A salmon caught by ang- 

 ling ! No no such prodigy in their opinion ever 

 occurred. 



Let us now see what fly-fishing is whether it 

 is a fool at one end of a rod, and a worm at the 

 other. The greatest names in arms, science, lite- 

 rature and art have been devoted to fly-fishing. 

 Nelson's " dear, dear Merton," with its Wandle 



