FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 327 
labouring men in Central and Southern America. There are 
many preparations, but I find this the best and pleasantest. It 
is procurable from Roberts, the Bond Street chemist. 
The luncheon disposed of, there remains a high and doubtful 
question—shall Piscator smoke? I think the ayes have it. 
For myself, in spite of King Jamie and his modern supporters, 
I cannot dispense with my water-side cigar, especially on a hot 
afternoon. No one, J think, can fully appreciate the effect, at- 
once soothing and restorative, of a well-timed weed, who has 
not enjoyed it in a tropical climate. Often after a weary ride 
through Australian bush, the glass standing at 110° or even 
120° in the shade, my pulses throbbing and every nerve ajar, 
T have thrown myself from my horse, set my back against the 
shady side of a huge gum-tree bole, and after a few whiffs of a 
ready cheroot have felt myself calmed and refreshed ‘ beyond 
the Muse’s painting.’ 
Even in England there is many a sultry afternoon when the 
fly fisher, after four or five hours on the water, will enjoy the 
fragrant leaf with similar zest. And, luckily, the hottest part of 
a summer’s day is usually a time when the fish are little on the 
move, so that he may have his smoke out without sacrificing 
his sport. Indeed, if he means to make a long day in July or 
August, he will often do well to prolong his rest, and while away 
an hour or two with a well-chosen pocket volume of Horace, 
for instance, or Boswell’s ‘Johnson,’ or Percy’s ‘ Reliques ’— 
anything that may be engaged by snatches, without continuous 
reading. There are times of sultry stillness when to offer a fly 
to the sulky low-lying trout is as useless as whistling jigs to a 
milestone. Nevertheless, the angler at rest will do wisely to 
keep his ears open, and to cast an occasional glance out of the 
‘tail of his eye’ up and down the stream. Three or four heavy 
rises seen or heard in succession may give him unexpected notice 
that the fish are astir again, 
And here let me remark, that there are few questions con- 
cerning trout at once so interesting and so difficult of solution 
as that which touches the times of their feeding; the hours and 
