92 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



I remarked that I had not seen the 

 rise. " O, that's nothing ! " he answered, 

 laughing. "When we land this one I'll 

 catch five more without your seeing a 

 rise." He was as good as his word. He 

 did catch five more, and every time he 

 struck he was, so far as could be seen, 

 striking at nothing at all ! As we were 

 packing up the rods he explained that he 

 struck whenever he noticed a stoppage 

 of the line. 



From these two cases it would appear 

 that exceptionally gifted fishermen owe 

 their success not to divination but to rare 

 acuteness of the eyesight. As it would 

 be tiresome to have in angling any 

 element of uncanniness, this is pleasant 

 knowledge. It may serve to solve 

 Mr. Bradley's perplexity in its specialised 

 formulation. "I can, of course," he 

 writes, "understand there being grades 

 among wet-fly fishermen who know more 

 or less how to fish. That is simple. But 

 I cannot understand one man standing 

 out. There is a man called E , a 



