TIPS. 83 



disagreement as tu the utility of tliis operation, but as a matter of fact, 

 it is the salvation (pf the whole business, and \et onl\- the [jrelude, as 

 will be presentl}- shown, to a sustained effort to meet further 

 contingencies. To omit tiie performance at the i)ool in question, 

 would simply mean that )-our lly must alwa}-s go the wrong way and 

 never stir a hsh into action at all. 



If the policy of " mending " is something of a conundrum to 

 anglers at home, men cjuite up to or even above average form, what 

 about the rank-and-file on active service ? Their defeat is absolutely 

 certain. This is not propliecy, but tlie logical outcome of the facts 

 and factors of the case. 



What \olumes could be written on "divided opinions"! To be 

 candid, there is hardly a mechanical action foimd necessary to be 

 adopted, hardly a single stroke of policy that now makes clear a 

 hiliierto obscure problem, on which we are uiianiiuous. 



Witness, for e.\ample, the widely different ideas expressed on the 

 modern system of choosing flies. How often the majority of men iu-e 

 seen struggling with their fly-books in a sea of doubt! On this 

 subject, however, we have already enlarged in (Chapter II., where it 

 has been set forth in great detail, so as to show how experiments 

 suggested by change ^of weather and temperature present tliemselves 

 differently to different minds, and consequently induce one set of men 

 to pin their faith to schemes of one kind, while others are led by some 

 variation of circumstances to swear by manoeuvres of a different 

 " cast." So long as the noble art of fly fishing engages so many luid 

 various minds in its pursuit, so long will differences of opinion arise, 

 and the old proverb of " Quot homines, tot sententia; " will be 

 verifled anew. This, however, does not prevent us from asserting that 



