FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAVYLIING: 
OR 
‘FINE AND FAR OFF} 
INTRODUCTORY. 
Ir is a shallow as well as a dismal scheme of life which 
ignores or undervalues the importance of recreation. Never, 
I believe, was there an age in which it was more in- 
dispensable ‘For weary body and for heavy soul.’ We 
are living at high-pressure ; business has become more en- 
grossing and the pursuit of what is called pleasure more 
laborious. It is more than ever desirable to find occasional 
change of scene and occupation which shall be really refreshing ; 
which shall at once recruit, our bodily energies and give free 
play to faculties and feelings which are shelved during the 
daily routine of working life. Mere locomotion is not enough; 
our thoughts must be turned into new and pleasant channels, 
and we must seek places suited to new phases of agreeable ac- 
tivity. It is told of one of the most eminent of English con- 
veyancers that when induced for his health’s sake to visit the 
seaside, he carried with him, by way of light reading, ‘Fearne 
on Contingent Remainders.’ Sea air may have done something 
for him ; but where was his recreation? His mind was kept 
running in the old groove. 
It is of course true that what is recreation to one man 
might be mere weariness to another of different tastes and 
habits, who feels the strain of over-work in different functions 
