92 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



box of dry-flies. Spare casts and points. Paraffin 

 bottle and brush. Something to cut with. Bit 

 of indiarubber to straighten curly gut. Spring- 

 balance marked in pounds, ounces and fractions. 

 A little pocket " priest " to give the coup de 

 grdce. Pipe, tobacco and matches. 



Once I saw a similar list I cannot remember 

 where written out carefully by a dear old absent- 

 minded fisherman of a past generation. The 

 last item on his list was " Kiss wife." 



Then you pick up your rod with a vague 

 feeling that, after all, you have forgotten some- 

 thing important. So you have. I began this 

 article with an analogy between trout-fishing 

 and warfare. Many years ago, after having 

 as a subaltern had some experience of active 

 service involving hard marching, it fell to my 

 lot to instruct classes of young officers likely 

 to be similarly situated. There was much to 

 teach them, but I remember ending my course 

 of instruction with the words " Grease your 

 boots," and years afterwards I received many 

 grateful thanks for that advice. For the dry- 

 fly man there is the all-important maxim " Grease 

 your line." You cannot do so too often, and 

 for two reasons. A well-greased line lies lightly 

 on the water, keeping rod and fly in intimate 

 touch with each other, and a floating line is more 



