42 



It follows, that the only way the mystery can be explained — the 

 only logical way — is that none of his companions brought to their 

 task, as he did, the employment of his system of fishing, verified 

 scores of tmies, and laid down in his book for one and all alike. 



But of course the subject must be approached from other stand- 

 points. 



We now allude, for instance, to that part of the fixed principle, 

 which so upset the critic, of putting a little bit of this material and a 

 little bit of that in a fly. The following interesting example is only 

 one of many that shows how accommodating the system is to all — 

 even to those with no previous experience of it, and with no 

 pretensions to be in any sense experts at handling the rod. 



It should be said by way of preface to this example, that none of 

 those " skilled wielders of the rod," mentioned in the former case, 

 had caught in five successive years, more than four salmon at Carlogie 

 in the month of May ; also, that the tenant last May, fairly new to the 

 work, had consulted me upon the dressing of flies which he should 

 get specially made for those waters, and upon the system of using 

 them. 



Here is his letter to me, dated 30th May, iqoo : 



" I found your variation of the Silver Grey such a splendid 



killer that I fear I stuck to it too long, a,nd did not give your 



system of using the others, on stated occasions, a fair trial. But 



still I had thirteen fish up to the 2^th, and lost seven others. My 



biggest turned the scale at ig lbs. 



(signed) JOHN BIDDULPH." 



We now pass to more congenial arguments. 



For what object did the author of "The Salmon Fly" say (pp. 



