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A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



use, is not above employing the sunk fly. He has too 

 much good sense to deny himself a pleasure because 

 he is unable to pursue it in the manner he prefers. 



I admire his method, which seems to me the very 

 perfection of fly-fishing. I envy him, too, the possession 



of the qualities by the exercise 

 of which he attains success : 

 the untiring patience in which 

 he awaits a rise ; the self- 

 control which curbs his eager- 

 ness as, like the noble Red 

 Man, he creeps stealthily to- 

 wards his prey ; the skill with 

 which he wields his rod and 

 deftly drops his fly on the 

 exact spot aimed at. His 

 practice is excellent, but I 

 have little sympathy with his theories. His rigid adher- 

 ence to the use of an imitation of the fly that is " up " ; 

 the employment of the microscope in the construction 

 of his lures that they may resemble — in colour — to the 

 shadow of a shade the natural insects in the image of 

 which they are dressed ; the elaborate care expended on 

 his efforts to prevent his lure from dragging ; all give 

 increase of zest to his sport if, possibly, they add little 



