AETIFIOIAL -FLY IPISHING. 



Of the many appliances, which the ingenuity of man 

 has devised for capturing the finny tribe, the gentle art of 

 fly fishing, soars at an immeasurable distance above all 

 others. 



In the structure of the fly, and in its use, in tempting 

 the fish from the pebbly brook, the dashing river, or the 

 lake, (give me river fishing,) the most fastidious can have 

 nothing to object to. The hand requires no glove to keep 

 it clean, no baiting hook with writhing worm, or 

 living minnow. Freed from all such annoyances, the 

 sportsman wends his way — o'er mountain, hill or dell, with 

 rod and book. Arriving at the stream, his flies are chosen, 

 attached to his collar of well tried gut, his line of silk and 

 hair ; and thus prepared he wanders on, along the grassy 

 dell, or craggy rock, using his judgment, to determine 

 where the fish lie hid. And now he takes a cast, if for a 

 salmon with a single fly ; the line is in mid-air, and with a 

 gentle, but firm motion of the wrist, is brought to hover 

 near yon curling eddy, or projecting rock. The fly with 

 fairy foot-steps dances in measure to the murmuring 

 stream, skimming its surface in its airy march, but ah ! 

 the dance is o'er, the fly's invisible, but the music 

 still is heard, — the music of the reel. Seeking his prey 

 " the biter's bit." 



The keen eye of the fisher saw the rise, 

 A motion of the wrist secured the prize. 



