OF PURFLING AND PURISM 59 



pink of condition, yet at times of scarcity is known 

 to allow his baser nature to get the better of that 

 reluctance ; who in the morning nurses an ambition 

 to bring home a heavy basket ; who carries no 

 steelyard, but prefers to allow, in stating the 

 weight of his fish, for the ounces which they lose 

 after death; who employs habitually but few 

 patterns, yet will not disdain in obstinate cases to 

 bring out fancy lures. This man is met with 

 everywhere. 



Above him is found the three-fly expert. Two 

 shades of olive and a black gnat are enough for 

 him. He will allow himself a Mayfly when it is on 

 the water, but at other seasons he is rigid. He 

 casts each pattern but once, for, so supreme is his 

 skill, what are called " trial casts " are unknown to 

 his fishing. He calls trout " fario," and possesses 

 a secret recipe for the dressing of a line. Such an 

 one I suspect yonder Purfling to be. 



I now come to the point where the taint of 

 blood at last ceases to pollute the fair name of 

 dry-fly fishing. The anglers of whom I have 

 spoken still move upon a lower plane. They all 

 try to catch and kill trout. But with my next 

 example the regions of pure science are entered. 

 For it is, or so I believe, this very point of 

 slaughter which marks off the truly great angler 

 from the merely expert. Yet here again are 



