Dec. 24, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1033 
time since he had risen. Presently we were by 
the water’s edge, and for half an hour I showed 
MacArtluir how to cast his fly over imaginary 
fish, and how to keep his rod’s point up and 
pull in the slack, all of which he managed to 
do — easily. You are to remember always that 
MacArthur was a most accomplished fisherman. 
Suddenly he found a fish—-which I had failed to 
observe. It lay near the bank on which we 
stood, evidently just posted for breakfast, about 
fifteen yards above us. The water was clear 
of rushes and weeds, nor was there any eddy 
or glide. The bank was free of high grass and 
trees and all other nuisances. The wind blew 
gently up stream. I had a perfectly clear right- 
hand horizontal cast. It was what is called “a 
sitter.” As we looked the fish sucked down a 
fly. “Have at him,” said MacArthur, as he 
crouched to the earth (what he had not read 
about dry-fly fishing was not worth writing). 
“I want to see just how you do it.” 
It was inconceivable that I should ever find 
a more easily placed trout. I knelt down, as 
the books recommend, let out line, cast, and the 
wind — the kindly wind of the west — dropped a 
pale olive three inches above the nose of the 
fish, which took it instantly. I hooked him, 
rattled him down stream, and had him in the 
net before the howl which MacArthur uttered 
as I struck had ceased to reverberate among 
the surrounding chalk hills. I do not hesitate 
to say that the thing could not have better done. 
I said, “There!” 
MacArthur was breathing heavily through his 
nose, and his eyes were shining with delight and 
excitement and triumph. He had seen the lur¬ 
ing and slaughter of a chalk stream trout — a 
trout of i)4 pounds, a trout twice as big as the 
biggest lie had ever looked on. He said that it 
was magnificent, and launched into praises of 
my skill. I perserved a modest demeanor, and 
told him that now he must get one. He de¬ 
spaired of ever attaining to my accuracy and 
deadliness. Seeing a fish about 300 yards up 
stream (he had an eye like a telescope) he be¬ 
sought me to come and catch that one, too, as 
he had hardly had time to observe my methods. 
He said it was a privilege to watch me. I did 
not say what I would do until we reached 
the rising fish, when I told MacArthur that he 
must have a go at it. I pointed out that he had 
not taken a rod on this river to watch me catch¬ 
ing fish, but to learn to do it himself. I in¬ 
sisted on his trying for this trout. 
The place in which it lay was situated twenty- 
yards across the stream, under the overhanging 
branch of a willow, and on the far side of a 
thin line of rushes and weeds. The rushes and 
the branch were so disposed that the only pos¬ 
sible chance of getting a fly to the fish was to 
shoot it out of gun through a gap some 10 
inches wide. I said, “This is not a particularly 
easy cast. But, remember, if you hook him you 
must bustle him. Though you break you must 
not give him his head. This is your only 
chance. You recollect what I told you about 
raising your rod high in the air and walking 
backward into the meadow? This is an oc¬ 
casion when you must do that.” 
MacArthur asked me if it was possible to 
cock a fly properly at that distance. This 
seemed to be the only doubt that troubled him. 
I told him (because he had on a dry, well-oiled, 
and well-made fly, which would cock itself quite 
independently of the person who threw it) that 
it was quite possible. “For you, perhaps,” said 
Mac Arthur, and as he began to get out line I 
could feel the blushes chasing each other up 
and down my body. The next moment Mac- 
Arthur’s fly passed through the gap which I 
have described, and lit, cocked to a miracle, on 
the only square inch of water where it could 
have served any useful purpose .whatever. The 
trout hurled itself on to the hook. MacArthur 
struck, raised his rod high in the air and be¬ 
gan to walk backward steadily into the meadow', 
just as I had told him to do. The trout," 
paralyzed by astonishment, followed obediently’, 
wriggled itself bodily over the weeds and 
through the rushes, swung in the deep, safe 
water for a second, and made off up stream like 
lightning. But he was w'ell hooked, and there 
BULK SMOKELESS POWDER 
Easy on ihe Shoulder 
The Powder YOU want in your 
:: FIELD and TRAP LOADS :: 
SHOOT 
A 
DALY GUN 
QUALITY STANDS OUT BOLDLY ON A DALY 
The Charles Daly is the only gun for the discriminating sports¬ 
man. Daly quality means perfection in gun construction. They 
are made carefully by hand and brains throughout. Machinery 
can never hope to equal the hand work of the artists, the gun¬ 
smiths and the engravers who work on Daly Guns. 
Our Catalog fully describes the above and all other high 
grade guns, rifles, revolvers and everything the sportsman needs. 
MAILED FREE FOR THE ASKING- 
Schoverlirg Daly & Gales Jrzk„ 
44 The Gun That Blocks the 
SEARS ’ 
POSITIVELY SAFE 
Send 10 Cents for our Large Catalogue and get a 
Beautiful Davis Guns Souvenir. 
N. R. DAVIS (EL SONS, Lock Box 707. ASSONET, MASS., U. S. A. H 
When writing say you saw the ad. in “Forest and Stream.” 
