“How interesting. You must have 
been a close observer, Doctor, of the 
habits and peculiarities of fishes. What 
did you mean by speaking of the in- 
tensification of colors at the nuptial 
season? Do fish mate like birds and 
put on their best apparel at the pair- 
ing time?” 
“They certainly do. The upper 
waters of the streams are the scenes of 
their autumnal loves. To the gravelly 
shallows at the very sources, the mated 
fish shape their bridal tours, which be- 
gin in September and culminate in the 
construction of nests in the gravel by 
the prospective mother trout, and the 
deposit and fertilization 
of eggs in the nests.” 
“Have you ever wit- 
nessed all this? 
“Yes, many a time.” 
“And do you mean to 
tell me that fish have 
their loves?” 
ee 
“Indeed they have, ——— 
and they love exclusively. 
The brook trout is a 
passionate lover and wooer. Clad in 
lustred wedding garment, he flashes his 
painted sides before his more plainly 
attired bride, in frequent journeys to 
and from the hymeneal bed he has pre- 
pared to coax her to it with him.” 
“So the male fish attracts his mate 
through a Joseph’s coat?” 
“\/7ES, the resplendent tinting of the 
sides renders this charr, with its 
large expressive eyes and _ intelligent 
head, the peer in beauty of any fish in 
the world. Do you wonder, when man 
so regards him, that his demure little 
mate is far from indifferent to his gor- 
geous bloom?” 
“From what I could see of the trout 
that loitered in the swift water as we 
followed the brook through the woods, 
they were less brilliantly colored. Am 
Peright 27 
“You are, and very observant. In 
pure sunlit brook water, the coloration 
is vivid; under dark banks and in the 
shade of the forest, it is dead lustre or 
even black. In twenty minutes, through 
an automatic command of the nervous 
supply, a trout can completely change 
its hue from gay to grave, or the re- 
verse, and thus render itself inconspicu- 
ous in any color environment. But he 
can not at will marble his fins and back 
with vermiculations and punctulate his 
ocellated skin with spots of fire in lilac 
frame to engage the eye and rivet the 
affections of his paramour.” 
And the doctor picked up the beauti- 
ful figure that lay on the grass, dis- 
posed it tenderly in his. stretched-out 
palm, and gazed at it with the affec- 
tion of a thorough-paced sportsman. 
196 
“No Michael Angelo was He, Miss 
Wetterstrand, who fashioned the temple 
of this exquisite fish-form, made per- 
fect through millennia of differentia- 
tion in the evolutionary process, for 
the delectation of man. 
“T HAVE followed his forebears clear 
back into geological ages. God be 
praised that he had the good sense to 
abandon in the course of his evolution 
the deep waters where we should never 
known him, and give his life to the 
riffles that chatter through the enameled 
champaign and to the stately flow of 
the silent river under the shadows of 
the soundless forest. But 
we are losing time. Let 
us get to our first lesson 
in fly-casting. The pool 
we have just disturbed 
and frightened the fish 
away from will be just 
the place for you to be- 
(oat ols! 
“Don’t laugh at me, 
doctor, for I know I shall 
be awkward and make some mistakes. 
I have often heard that casting the 
artificial fly is the most scientific form 
of angling. It looked easy when I saw 
you do it.” 
“T think I can make it easy for you. 
Now let me give you the first princi- 
ples: Casting the fly involves a back- 
ward followed by a foreward motion of 
the rod, controlled entirely by the wrist. 
Recall what you saw me do. I grasped 
the handpiece of the rod firmly with 
the fingers of my right hand, extending 
my thumb along the upper part of the 
rod and allowing the line from the reel, 
below and behind my hand, to pass be- 
tween the rod and my forefinger, so 
that I could control it by pressure. 
“The essential principle of fly-cast- 
ing consists in allowing time enough for 
the line in the back cast to straighten 
out before a forward impulse is given 
to the rod. The motion required is a 
wrist-motion and must be deliberate 
and not jerky. 
“Now take my rod and grasp it as 
I show you. I will knot two handker- 
chiefs together and bind your upper 
arm to your body, so you can use only 
your forearm and wrist in the proce- 
dure. Now try with a short line, 
whipped gradually out by a succession 
of casts. That’s right. There you go, 
as all beginners do, trying to recover 
your back line too quickly. Stop a 
minute till I untangle it.” 
“Oh! dear, I knew I couldn’t do it.” 
“Yes, you can do it. Be a little less 
impetuous, a little slower and more de- 
liberate.” 
This time, Magnhild succeeded in 
sending the flies into the water with a 
vicious splash; but after several trials, 
they fell more gently at a distance of 
twenty feet; and in response to the doe 
tor’s coaching, she kept them moving 
in simulation of the struggles of a liy- 
ing insect. 
“You are doing admirably, Miss Wet- 
terstrand, try that cast again, and be 
careful before making your back cast, 
not to draw your flies over the water 
so far toward you that the power to 
strike a rising fish is lost. This is im- 
portant. There, you are doing all right, 
Practice will make you perfect in this 
part of the technic. 
“Ah! impatient again. You whisk 
your flies out too quick. Keep them on 
the water a moment, and in motion, 
This way, and the doctor placed his 
broad hand over Magnhild’s, and so reg- 
ulated the duration of the several peri- 
ods in her casts. 
“Give the trout a chance to see and 
make a dash for the flies. Remember, 
there are no fish in the air. Pardon 
the sarcasm, but so many enthusiastic 
beginners forget this and exhaust their 
energies in whipping the atmosphere. 
No force is required, it is just a gentle 
wrist motion, and I have tied up your 
arm so you can’t go through a sabre 
drill with a bamboo rod. The fish are 
not in the air—axiom No. 2. You are 
not fishing for birds.” 
“T never heard of catching a bird on 
a fish line. You are giving me the 
gleek.” 
“A JOT it. Birds have been uninten- 
tionally caught by anglers other 
than I. Swallows will occasionally dive 
for a good imitation on a long back cast, 
pick it up, and usually spit it out im 
stanter; but sometimes they are hooked, 
and a painful experience follows both 
for bird and fisher. Only last spring, 
while trolling in Lake George, I played 
a sea-gull in the clouds. The bird had 
swooped down on the white fish I was 
using for bait, and hooked itself fast 
in the gang 300 feet behind the boat.” 
“That sounds like a fish story; what. 
became of your gull?” 
“Why, as he couldn’t get loose, I had 
to reel him in and disengage him. I 
shall never forget the astonished ex- 
pression in his eyes, when I gave him 
He looked as if he ex- 
his liberty. 
pected to be tapped on the head and 
mounted by a taxidermist as a trophy.” 
“But, Doctor, let me ask you a ques- 
tion. 
> 
This fly fishing is all right in the © 
open where the stream is wide and 
there are no trees. 
But in making our | 
way to this meadow, we passed along | 
parts of the brook where it would have > 
been impossible to cast a fly. Is there 
no other way of taking the trout than 
this?” 
“There is, and I hold that it is not. 
unsportsmanlike. An angler, you know, 

