72 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



but I fear that his interpretation of the facts and mine 

 will not be found to correspond. 



The use of the microscope in fly-dressing is a refine- 

 ment of the art which borders on the farcical and affords 

 the scorner an opportunity he is unlikely to neglect. 

 It is one of the absurd vagaries of the 

 dry-fly artist which, if they add nothing to 

 the gaiety of nations, tend to the promo- 

 tion of hilarity among his less divertingly 

 imaginative fellow-craftsmen. In failing 

 to bestow on him that greatest of all gifts, 

 the grift of humour, Nature has been 

 thoughtless of his interests. He takes him- 

 self and his vocation much too seriously. 

 The votary of the dry-fly probably derives a 

 greater pleasure from his art than the wet-fly fisher 

 finds in his. In promiscuous casting, the angler 

 has a general expectation of a rise. He is aware 

 that at any moment his fly may be taken by a fish, 

 but the precise moment is not within his know- 

 ledge. Even when his lure is passing over the most 

 promising of water his hope is far removed from cer- 

 tainty. He is continuously on the alert, but while he 

 is interested in every cast he has no particular interest 

 in any. The dry-fly angler, on the contrary, does not 



