70 Fly-'Fifhing. 



their mouths by force, though it would have held 

 them faft enough, if delicately handled. 



A companion who enjoyed the fport would 

 fometimes volunteer to cater for him in the fly 

 way. Very fond too of a practical joke was he, 

 even if played upon a poor trout. Inftead, there- 

 fore, of fupplying flies that were fwarming around 

 him, it was his efpecial delight to induce the 

 "Artful Dodger" to try the moft uncouth-look- 

 ing infects in the fhape of flies he could meet with 

 in the grafs and bufhes about him. That the 

 trout took no further notice of them after the 

 firft infpection, it may readily be imagined j ft ill, 

 that he did manage occafionally to tempt one to 

 his ruin by means of a very ftrange, unfightly 

 infect, is undeniable enough. 



How often have I watched thefe two whimfical 

 fimermen peering between the bufhes, or from 

 behind trees, in the utmoft ftate of delight when 

 they faw how the inquifitive trout failed round 

 and round, it may be, a fmall flender-bodied blue 

 dragon-fly, or black-beetle, which the " Artful 

 Dodger " was endeavouring to put into the moft 

 inviting of attitudes before them. Though both 

 thefe infects have in their turn been ufed, I know 

 ho inftance in which he fucceeded in inducing a 



