FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 327 



labouring men in Central and Southern America. There are 

 many preparations, but I find this the best and pleasantest It 

 is procurable from Roberts, the Bond Street chemist. 



The luncheon disposed of, there remains a high and doubtful 

 question — shall Piscator smoke ? I think the ayes have it. 

 For myself, in spite of King Jamie and his modern supporters, 

 I cannot dispense with my water-side cigar, especially on a hot 

 afternoon. No one, I think, can fully appreciate the effect, at 

 once soothing and restorative, of a well-timed weed, who has 

 not enjoyed it in a tropical climate. Often after a weary ride 

 through Australian bush, the glass standing at 110° or even 

 120° in the shade, my pulses throbbing and every nerve ajar, 

 I have thrown myself from my horse, set my back against the 

 shady side of a huge gum-tree bole, and after a few whiffs of a 

 ready cheroot have felt myself calmed and refreshed ' beyond 

 the Muse's painting.' 



Even in England there is many a sultry afternoon when the 

 fly fisher, after four or five hours on the water, will enjoy the 

 fragrant leaf with similar zest. And, luckily, the hottest part of 

 a summer's day is usually a time when the fish are little on the 

 move, so that he may have his smoke out \vithout sacrificing 

 his sport. Indeed, if he means to make a long day in July or 

 August, he will often do well to prolong his rest, and while away 

 an hour or two with a well-chosen pocket volume of Horace, 

 for instance, or Boswell's ' Johnson,' or Percy's ' Reliques ' — • 

 anything that may be engaged by snatches, without continuous 

 reading. There are times of sultry stillness when to offer a fly 

 to the sulky low-lying trout is as useless as whistling jigs to a 

 milestone. Nevertheless, the angler at rest will do wisely to 

 keep his ears open, and to cast an occasional glance out of the 

 ' tail of his eye ' up and down the stream. Three or four heavy 

 rises seen or heard in succession may give him unexpected notice 

 that the fish are astir again. 



And here let me remark, that there are few questions con- 

 cerning trout at once so interesting and so difficult of solution 

 as that which touches the times of their feeding ; the hours and 



