KINSHIP WITH THE ARTS 5 



informed by a code of knowledge and 

 reflection much wider than that which is 

 needed on the moor. Recently, on a 

 Highland loch, James MacCallum, at the 

 oars, expressed this tersely. "Yes," he 

 said : " ye can force shooting ; but ye 

 canna' force fishing." 



However intimate any man's acquaint- 

 ance with the habits of trout may be, 

 there comes not infrequently a day on 

 which it proves astonishingly insufficient. 

 The water is in splendid order, the air is 

 volatile, and the lures seem right ; but not 

 a trout will rise. This shows how very 

 elementary the science of angling still is. 

 In the British Islands the sport has been 

 a favourite for centuries. By means of 

 rods and lines, books of flies, and cases of 

 minnow-tackle, as well as by oral tradition 

 and literature, instruction in it has been 

 passed on, constantly revised and ex- 

 panded, from generation to generation ; 

 yet there always have been, and appar- 

 ently there always will be, days on which, 

 even if his life depended on his doing so. 



