24 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
appearance of the line. There is no amusement that I wot 
of in which it is so requisite for its lover to know how to 
inake use of his hands and ingenuity. Bad luck, or what- 
ever you choose to call it, may, before an hour’s fishing be 
done, reduce you to the alternative of either ceasing work 
or manufacturing out of broken fragments a new casting- 
line. Very possibly this is caused by the fish being more 
than usually on the feed. How disagreeable to be com- 
pelled at such a time to halt !—-better far to spend ten min- 
utes with the dry end of gut in your mouth, the more rap- 
idly to render the hairs fit for knotting, and to know how 
to put them together afterward, than be obliged to cease. 
The rings upon your rod should be large and not too nu- 
merous; five are sufficient for the lower joints, and about 
five more for the tip, supposing it to be a rod thirteen feet 
in length, and in three pieces. In America I lately saw 
rods ringed on both sides, so that, if after unusual hard 
work and constant use, a tendency to warp was evinced, 
you altered your reel to the reverse side and thus counter- 
acted it. However, the better plan, I should say, would be 
to use the reverse sides day about. The only objection to 
this double arrangement of rings is additional weight, but 
that must be very trifling. 
Having now described the rod, the reel, the line, and the 
cast, I approach a subject that I hesitate to touch, viz., fly- 
tying, for I do not think that any one can become an expert 
but through constant practice, after having received nu- 
merous elementary lessons from an adept. I believe I can 
tie a fair fly; but how long do you suppose it was before 
I reached my present excellence? Years; and even now 
I discover wrinkles and new methods of which I was not 
previously aware; however, one rule may be laid,down: 
never to take a turn of the silk round your hook without 
purpose, or without giving it sufficient strength to keep it 
