EQUIPMENT FOR SOUTH AFRICA 219 
it! Twice, in England, did I have this joy. In 
the one instance, Dr. Clapham handed me his 
excellent dry-fly rod, “just to try it,’ when we 
were on the Colne at Thorney Weir, and he 
kindly put me on to a rising trout, which I 
succeeded in catching. In the other instance 
my good friend the Major asked me to “ have 
a chuck” with his light little 8 ft. rod on 
the Teme, and I got a good grayling. The 
Major has already enough impedimenta to stock 
a fishing-tackle shop, but I was not a bit surprised 
when he told me the other day in London that he 
had just bought another fly-rod. 
One hint may here be given to the youthful 
fly-fisher: watch, for all you are worth, the 
experienced fly-fisherman: study his _ easy, 
finished methods. His performance will make 
you wonder how it is done; you will wish you 
could only throw a fly like that, and also strike 
your fish so imperceptibly but so effectively. 
Take heart. He was once a beginner, like you. 
Watching another fly-fisherman at work is fasci- 
nating and often educative. Once when I was 
fly-fishing in East Griqualand with my friend 
Mr. W. Stuart Barclay, of the Johannesburg 
Stock Exchange, we came, on the river Pot, to 
a pool where the water was quite clear, and where 
the trout were rising. He said: “I’m going to 
watch you.” I promptly missed a trout. He 
reported, “I could see everything! I saw the 
trout come, and you struck too late.” The on- 
looker was able, as it happened, to keep concealed 
