HINTS FOR BEGINNERS. 17 



that is required, which you counteract by surplus lead, as 

 friction is increased and so power wasted. 



Old hands may smile after reading the above, and justly 

 say, " The fellow has told us nothing new ;" but remember 

 we are not all old hands, and that there are many begin- 

 ners, for whose benefit these hints are given. 



The fly-rod, like the gun, can not be too light, as long as 

 it possesses the requisite strength ; for while fishing it is 

 incessantly at work, the respite for loading not even being 

 granted ; thus if a heavy gun after a hard day's work will 

 make you undershoot your game, a heavy rod will have a 

 greater tendency to make you a sluggard at evening in 

 striking your fish, and the result will be about similar in 

 both instances. For the trout fisherman he, I mean, who 

 fly-fishes burns and rivers from twelve to thirteen feet 

 is quite sufficient length for his rod to be (lake fisher- 

 men frequently use longer, but what they gain in reach 

 they lose in quickness, a loss, in my estimation, of most 

 serious importance), and such a rod should not exceed in 

 weight eight or nine ounces. I can imagine I see many 

 cast up their eyes and exclaim that such is impossible to 

 procure, but let me say they are mistaken. I have owned 

 several of that weight, and with them, days in succession, 

 have taken baskets of fish, of not only all the ordinary sizes, 

 but on one occasion killed a trout nine pounds in weight. 

 As I can not help regarding this as a performance to be 

 proud of, I will relate how it took place. A couple of com- 

 panions and myself were encamped on the margin of Mad 

 River, in Oxford County, Maine. Our guns had failed to 

 provide dinner, so taking a hazel wand I essayed to cap- 

 ture sufficient chub to make a choicder, a description of 

 olla podrida stew. Having hooked a small fish, I was 

 about lifting it into the canoe when a large trout rushed 

 from underneath the birch-bark, seized the chub, and al- 



