49 



CHAPTER XII. 



CONCLUSION. 



FINALLY, fly-fishing may be considered one of the 

 best of sports, because it can be followed late in life. 

 Most devotees of sport, when the nerves become 

 shaky and the eyes grow dim, must content them- 

 selves with thinking or talking of what they did in 

 their youth. But it is not so with the fly-fisher. 

 He can still throw a fly and play a trout, better 

 perhaps than in his youth, because of his greater 

 experience ; and, when in the down-hill of life he looks 

 back on the hopes and anticipations of his boyhood 

 days, it must be gratifying to feel that the times 

 spent among the beauties of nature in exercising the 

 angler's art have been the most enjoyable parts of 

 his life, and that he is none the worse man for having 

 obeyed the precepts and followed the example of 

 our grand old past master, Izaak Walton. 



E 



