notwithstanding the attractions of croquet and lawn- 

 tennis. 



Having been a fly-fisher many years, I venture to 

 offer a few ideas on the subject, not with a view to 

 instruct my elder brethren in the art, but merely to 

 explain some principles that my experience has 

 proved to be correct, and thereby to save, perhaps, 

 some trouble and loss of time to young beginners. I 

 am fully aware that no amount of theory without 

 practice will ever make a fly-fisher, but I am also 

 aware that practice will become much easier, and be 

 far more likely to prove successful, if based on a 

 correct theory, than if left to itself. 



