LAKE AND STREAM 203 



difficult enough : it almost appears that 

 the trout have eyes in their tails : it is dis- 

 concerting to note how they sometimes 

 scuttle off just as you think you are 

 within casting distance. They are at 

 much greater advantage when it is a 

 worm, instead of a fly, you have to 

 throw. You need just as long a line, 

 usually, in the one case as in the other ; 

 and a long line weighted with a bait that 

 is easily jerked off is very difficult to 

 control. Indeed, the skill called for by 

 worm-fishing is so great that the streams 

 of England would not, I think, suffer 

 much by withdrawal of the prohibition. 



Lest this should happen, let us consider 

 for a moment the evolution of the gear 

 used in worm-fishing. It is a remarkable 

 instance of how slowly, amid normal con- 

 ditions, the inventive faculty of man 

 habitually works. In days of yore, until 

 the time when, for example. Sir Walter 

 Scott roamed along the Border streams, 

 the worm was impaled on a hook which, 

 if the wire had been stretched straight. 



