PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 255 



easier to have landed a single six-pounder. The 

 play of such a strike is the acme of angling, and 

 would be received by any expert as full compensa- 

 tion for a week's journey. 



As an instructive lesson to fly-fishers, I may add 

 that the tip which, with the care necessary in such 

 a contest, bore this test of the excellence of its 

 fibre, by being carelessly handled the next day, 

 snapped under the pressure of a half-pound trout. 

 The very best rod-makers are often anathematized 

 for the inferior character of their material and 

 their imperfect workmanship, when the anathema 

 belongs to the stupid or careless angler. This tip 

 had served me faithfully through two years of 

 hard work, and it would have served me other 

 years still, but for the folly of attempting to strike 

 a mere minnow with the rod nearly perpendicular. 

 When your rod exceeds an angle of forty-five, it is 

 out of safe striking line. Better haul in for an- 

 other cast than risk the break which will almost 

 inevitably follow a heavy strike beyond that angle. 

 I passed this pet tip into the depository of kindred 

 wrecks, with the feeling which one experiences in 

 bidding a long farewell to an old friend. I fear 

 " I ne'er shall look upon its like again." 



