262 SALMON AND TROUT. 
of body or mind. A well-earned holiday may be employed in 
fifty different ways, each having its own fitness. But in com- 
paring various recreations we may fairly give the palm to that 
which suits the greatest number of cases; that in which the 
largest proportion of intelligent men can find healthful bodily 
exercise combined with light yet interesting occupation for the 
mind. And I know none which satisfies these conditions more 
completely than angling. In its most refined form indeed— 
I need hardly add that I speak of fly fishing—it rises to the 
dignity of an elegant and ingenious art, combining in a singular 
degree the active and the contemplative, the practical and the 
scientific elernent. 
I have had my fair share of other more violent, perhaps 
more exciting field sports, and am not insensible to their attrac- 
tions. Happily, Piscator in these days need not wage a wordy 
conflict with Venator or Auceps, for the same men often excel in 
several branches of sport, and the friend whose opinion on the 
following pages of angling notes I shall value most highly is 
not only well known in the hunting field but singularly success- 
ful in the practice of falconry. 
Instead of apprehending any lack of sympathy with the 
zeal for my favourite recreation which leads me to add yet 
another to the many contributions recently made to its litera- 
ture, I rather fear that I shall be held to have done but scant 
justice to its varied attractions and resources. . . . 
_ But I will not open my case with an apology. An angler 
from boyhood—a fly fisher for more than fifty years, I will 
rather ‘assume desert,’ so far as to claim a favourable hearing 
for my experiences of an art which I can still practise with 
healthy enjoyment, and in despite of age, with a fair measure 
of success. 
The very name of fly fishing carries back my fancy to many 
a pleasant hour—many a lovely scene. Once more afloat on 
the still bosom of a Highland loch, I watch with eagerness the 
dark line widening from its western shore, welcome herald of 
