FOREST 
Vol. XCV No. 4 

STREAM 
April - 1925 
The Lesson in Casting 
From a Paper Read at the Annual Dinner of the New York Anglers’ Club 
' ¢ response to a request of my dear 
friend Mr. Tobias Wright and of 
Mr. Howard Hadden, to hold my- 
self in readiness, if the spirit so moved, 
to contribute a modicum of entertain- 
ment to this occasion, I am going to 
as anglers. 
present from a psychic novel of my 
creation a scene that will interest you 
It is entitled “The Lesson 
in Casting.”” The characters are Doc- 
tor Van Alstyne, an accomplished fly- 
fisher, and his pupil, Magnhild Wetter- 
strand, a daughter of Sweden. 
“T have a wish, Dr. Van Alstyne,” 
said Magnhild, “to angle in one of your 
streams, but I never have caught a 
trout and know nothing about fish- 
ing.” 
“Your desire is easily gratified. No 
time more fitting than the present. We 
shall not have to walk far. Wait till 
I get my rod and I’ll soon show you a 
_ beauty in vermillion sprinkle, and teach 
you how to deceive the quick-eyed trout. 
For a half-mile, pupil and preceptor 
trudged under pines and spruce by the 
brookside, not stopping to try the fish 
they saw zig-zagging up the rapids, 
until they emerged from the forest on 
a meadow where the brook deepened 
and broadened into frequent pools 
shaded by clumps of alder. The doctor 
jointed his rod, and looped on his line 
a cast of two small and sombre flies, 
for it was almost high noon, and 
_ dropped them deftly on the dark sur- 
face of the first pool. A splash, a 
_ twist of the wrist, a rush of steel-struck 
fish—all in one instant—and Magnhild 
beheld for the first time a struggle in 
which human intellect and angling skill 
were pitted against the self-saving in- 
stincts, and possible the experience, of 
the wariest and most beautiful charr 
of our eastern waters. 
ORTUNATELY for the angler, 
there was room in the splay pool 
for him to check with his flexible 
three ounce Leonard the mad rushes 
of the half-pound square-tail, which he 
adroitly stood off from the bank and 
By DR. JOHN D. QUACKENBOS 
headed away from a bunch of roots at 
the foot of the plash with the elastic 
spring of the rod. All these movements 
Magnhild watched with absorbing in- 
terest, and was delighted to be made a 
party to the capture. The doctor said: 

Dr. John D. Quackenbos 
“Take my landing net, Miss Wetter- 
strand, it is lying back of you on the 
grass, and as I draw the fish toward 
you—see! he is already tired out and 
floating on his side—slip the net under 
him and lift him out of the water.” 
A MORE elated girl it would be dif- 
ficult to imagine than was Magn- 
hild, as she obeyed the doctor’s direc- 
tions and disengaged the beguiling fly 
from the mouth of the graceful fish, 
which she laid on the grass amid a 
tuft of ferns. She felt the genuine 
thrill of the wild. She heard the siren 
voice of the woods that calls to the in- 
most soul. She quivered with gentle 
excitement; and from her lips sponta- 
neously burst the pent emotions in 
words that had reached the stress 
rhythmical: 
Contents Copyrighted by Forest and Stream Pub, Co, 
See there, among the ferns he lies, 
A roseate blaze in green, 
What brush may paint, what pen de- 
scribe 
That symmetry and sheen? 
And as his glorious colors fade, 
Deep thoughts crowd rathe and rife— 
The music of the lapsing stream 
Whispers the tale of life. 
“6 HY, Miss Wetherstrand, how 
your thoughts tend to move in 
rhythmic numbers! You said you did 
not know anything about fishing. Let 
me tell you, few know it as you do, 
for you apprehend the spiritual inter- 
pretation. Angling is indeed a school 
of virtues, in which men learn lessons 
of wisdom, forbearance, and love—love 
for the lower forms of animal life, love 
for their fellow-creatures, and love for 
the God of Nature.” 
“A school of virtues! How lovely. 
Will you not enroll me as a pupil in 
that school? And oh! Doctor, I must 
get busy. Let me catch a trout. Show 
me how to send those flies through the 
air and have them alight so softly on 
the water.” 
“Catch a trout you shall, and I will 
teach you how to cast; and as this is 
your first lesson in angling, let me be- 
gin by telling you the fish we have just 
caught is not a trout at all, but a charr, 
which word is the Gaelic for blood- 
colored, and thus appropriately de- 
scribes the rosy charms of fontinalis 
as scientists designate him. Charrs 
are distinguished from trout not only by 
their gaudy red or orange coloration, 
especially at the nuptial season, but 
also by the absence of teeth in the 
front part of the roof of the mouth. 
“““T*ROUT have a single or double row ~ 
of teeth there. If you will put 
your finger into the mouth of our cap- 
tive, you will see at once to what family 
he belongs. Note, too, that this fish has 
a square tail, vermilion spots with blue 
halos round them, the only charr so 
marked, and a _ peculiar mottled or 
marbled back.” 
195 
