108 RESULTS OF RASHNESS. 



but in this operation the wrist alone must be concerned, 

 and the remainder of the arm must have nothing what- 

 ever to do with the matter. 



It will require a good deal of practice and self-posses- 

 sion to be able to do this at all times neatly, quickly, and 

 efficiently, with the requisite degree of gentleness and cau- 

 tion. Out of the numerous pretenders to piscatorial accom- 

 plishments, how few do we meet with, who have been able 

 fairly to master this elementary lesson, and can per- 

 form this simple operation in a thoroughly artistic man- 

 ner ! Even many old and otherwise moderately respect- 

 able practitioners make a sad bungle of it, and toss every 

 trout they lay hold of high over their heads, as if the fate 

 of empires, nay life and death itself, depended upon the 

 celerity with which they transfer a poor luckless pigmy of 

 two ounces from the waters to terra firma. If the fish, 

 by a fortunate chance, happens to be under quarter of 

 a pound, all will be well, and the astonished denizen of 

 the crystal stream will find himself transferred, with the 

 velocity of a rifle-bullet, into the luxuriant verdure of a 

 grass meadow, there to ruminate on the suddenness and 

 the strangeness of his change ; but should he be some- 

 thing above that weight, then, in all probability, smash 

 goes the rod whiff goes the line and away goes the fish, 

 leaving the excitable sportsman standing aghast, with 

 eyes somewhat near the size of breakfast saucers. Some' 

 few again, whose blood circulates at a slow pace not ac- 

 cording to the railway speed of the present day, but after 

 the old stage-coach fashion of former times err in the 

 opposite extreme, and are so tardy in striking, as to allow 



