FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 323 



grayling is rather a northern than a southern fish, and beyond 

 the British Isles thrives best in high latitudes. I do not see 

 why we should not have our finest specimens from the north of 

 Scotland. At present I know but one stream where ' Thymallus ' 

 has been naturalised during the present generation — the Corve, 

 a small tributary which joins the Teme at Ludlow. There 

 may, however, well be others, as in a conversation a few years 

 since with the Editor of the ' Field,' he told me of some gray- 

 ling which he had recently transported by rail with perfect 

 success. These fish, however, were destined for a southern 

 stream. 



Here I might fairly lay down my pen ; but age has its privi- 

 leges, and holding with Cicero that the greatest of these is 'au- 

 thority,' I am tempted to add a few miscellaneous hints on 

 matters interesting to the angler, trusting that with a few, at 

 least, of my readers, to whom I shall not be, like one of my an- 

 cestors, a mere nominis umbra, they will carry some weiglit. 



And, first, as to tackle. Never buy a cheap rod ; it may 

 be admirably finished, but the chances are against its being 

 thoroughly seasoned. It is only the great houses that can 

 afford to keep their staves long enough in stock to insure dura- 

 bility. Green-heart, and some American ' arrangements in cane 

 and steel,' are now much in fashion, and I believe on report 

 that you may now obtain a rod of greater power — especially for 

 throwing against the wind — than those which have contented 

 me. Still, sound hickory is not to be despised. 



If you wish your rods to last long — and the two on which I 

 depend have been in use fifty and twenty years respectively — 

 look carefully to them at the end of the season. Let them be 

 revarnished and relapped in the winter, and have all the rings 

 save those on the butt moved some points round, so as to shift 

 the strain and obviate any tendency to a permanent bias or 

 ' cast ' in the wood. A splice rod has more perfect play than a 

 jointed one, and is worth setting up if you live on a river ; but 

 otherwise the jointed rod of the present day, with ends care- 



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