104 FISHING GOSSIP. 
AN ANGLER AT THE ANTIPODES. 
ANGLING in Australia, even in.clear rivers, has very 
little either of art or science about it. Time will pro- 
bably produce some improvement in this respect. 
The fish will become more educated—even the wide- 
mouthed Murray cod may learn more discrimination . 
in baits, and if he still continues attached to raw 
beef, may at least have his favourite cuts. Nay, as 
it is, I do not doubt that a gbod trolling-rod, an oiled 
silk line, such as I used of old when beguiling Thames 
trout (“ah! woeful when”), and a yard of first-rate 
salmon-gut, with a middle-sized Kirby neatly lapped, 
would kill more fish than the rude hand-tackle in use, 
especially in hot days and low waters. But it is 
difficult to make people in England conceive the un- 
developed state of all sporting appliances in this 
country. I cannot, for the chance of a possible day’s 
sport, carry a complete angling apparatus all over the 
county with me; and there is no more hope of find- 
ing the dweller on the best of rivers well provided with 
rod and tackle, and able to assist a visitor’s sport 
effectually, than of meeting with strawberry-ices in 
a bush hotel. I carry with me all that is absolutely 
