77 



sum total only serves to prove a fact which 

 the teachers appear not indisposed to con- 

 ceal that hungry trouts are not very parti- 

 cular in their selection of flies, but will rise 

 at such whose original type is not to be 

 found either on earth or in air. The direc- 

 tion, generally given in most books on angling, 

 to beat the bushes by the side of a stream 

 for the purpose of seeing what kind of flies 

 are abroad, is also a piece of information, 

 which, for any use that it is of, might be 

 dispensed with. Let the knowing theorist 

 make the experiment some morning or after- 

 noon in the months of June or July, by beating 

 the bushes with the stock of his rod, and, buzz ! 

 a thousand flies are on the wing, of at least 

 a dozen different shapes and hues. Well, 

 he has beat the bushes according to the rule 

 what has he to do next ? Does his guide 

 inform him which to select which at that 

 hour are playing at the surface of the stream, 

 or which, for the purpose of depositing their 

 eggs, are then seeking the shade of the trees 

 i 



