68 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



natural insect. One wonders if the explanation is not 

 just as applicable to other instances of the trout's utter 

 indifference to the seasons about which the fisherman 

 concerns himself so anxiously. 



The devotee of the dry-fly is pictured as a super- 

 fine person, between the wind and whose nobility 

 the humble wet-fly angler may not pass. In his 

 arrogance he assumes that he alone is entitled to 

 the name of sportsman, and for all forms of angling 

 save that he favours he manifests ineffable con- 

 tempt. They are rude and primitive methods of 

 essaying the capture of the trout ; good enough 

 for the amateur and the boy, but unworthy the 

 high ideals of the finished artist. He alone is the 

 " Compleat Angler." The deadliest insult you can 

 offer him is to suggest him capable of fishing with a 

 fly less dry than the Sahara or a Scotsman's humour. 

 The dry-fly is the only lure becoming a gentleman and 

 the dry-fly angler the highest product of evolution ; 

 something a breathless world has been awaiting from 

 the beginning of time. A recent writer imputes to him 

 a desire to "punch your nose" if you do not at once 

 acknowledge the infinite superiority of his methods. 

 He is too dainty a gentleman to do anything so rude. 

 Not that he is incapable of rudeness, but that his rude- 



