LAKE AND STREAM 197 



taken view. Who has not noticed how 

 cunningly the experienced boatman, when 

 you are trolling, goes about the business ? 

 Do you mark his course ? It is not in a 

 straight line that he moves : that would 

 disturb all the trout over which, follow- 

 ing the boat, the minnow would pass. 

 Therefore, instead of going straight, the 

 boatman pursues a line which is in large 

 curves, curves such as some giant must 

 make when he cuts the outside edge and 

 the inside edge alternately by the same 

 leg while skating on the ice of Lilliput. 

 By this means, the gillie contrives 

 that the minnow, which is about a 

 hundred yards off, shall cross the path of 

 the boat only now and then, and, for the 

 rest, be moving through water that has 

 not been disturbed. Though simple, it is 

 a cunning plan, showing that fishing with 

 a minnow calls for thought ; but is the 

 thought in this case sound ? 



Doubt arose from noticing that fre- 

 quently, when one was rowing or being 

 rowed by short cut to the beginning of 



