MERITS OF FLY-FISHING.

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world afford comfort and competence, acquired bit by bit by efforts, slightly but sufficiently stimulating to fresh and repeated exertion. The narrow, precipitous paths of life lead to fame, high honours, and high rank, and the ascent, rendered enchanting by the allurements of ambitious hope, is gained by daring activity, which never flags but for breath, to bound onward more and more bravely. The accessible streams that meander soothingly through soil for the sickle and scythe, yield to the industrious bottomfisher a full pannier, by a slowly and pleasantly accumulating process. The fly-fisher with haply a few casts of his artificial baits, surcharges his creel with salmon or trout, whose retreat in waters rushing by crag and fell he has attained by paths which none save the sportsman intent on high game would choose to tread.

I have now run rapidly through the salient merits of fly-fishing. Let me explain the practice of it with less precipitation.

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HANDBOOK OF ANGLING.

CHAPTER II.

THROWING THE LINE AND FLIES. HUMOURING THEM. FISHING A STREAM.—STRIKING, HOOKING, PLAYING, AND LANDING A FISH.

we say,

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OUR language contains many pretty, pithy, and largely expressive figures of speech. One man says of another, "he is the best whip' in England." We understand by one little word that he is alleged to be the best driver and manager of horses in harness in the kingdom. So when "he throws a line, or a fly better than any man we know," we mean to assert that he is the best fly-fisher of our acquaintance. The possession of the one power implies the possession of all the other necessary qualifications. Throwing well the line is an indispensable flyfishing qualification, the first to be learned, always called into play, and without which other attributes are nearly valueless. You may hook a fish well, play a fish well, land a fish well, but you will very seldom have an opportunity of doing so unless you throw a line well. We judge of a fly-fisher by the manner in which he casts his line. If he does so with ease and elegance, and efficiently, we set him down as an adept in

THROWING THE LINE AND FLIES.

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all the minutia of the art - if he does not, we conclude that he is a tyro. That, reader, you may not long remain in this latter category, if, indeed, you do belong to it at all, let there be during the fly-fishing season, for you, nulla dies sine lineâ.

I can see no wonderful difficulty in throwing a line well. Many certainly do not do so, by reason, chiefly, of having adopted a bad method at the outset. It is better to have no fly-fishing habit at all, than to have a bad one. Commence on the proper principle; persevere, become a proficient.

and you must

HOW TO THROW THE LINE AND FLIES. You are a beginner, I presume, and have never handled a rod before. Let the rod for your novitiate be eleven feet long; its play inclining rather to faulty stiffness, than to over-pliancy. Put the joints or pieces together, the rings standing in a straight line the one to the other, that your line may run evenly between them without any tortuous impediment. Put on your winch or reel with its handle towards the left side, and draw out your line through the rings, until there be about four yards of it out from beyond the last ring of the top joint. You have now quite sufficient line out to commence the practice of casting with it. Let your winch and the rings of your rod be on the under side of it when you practise casting.

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HOW TO HOLD THE FLY-ROD.

You are now ready to begin. Grasp your rod, not tightly, in your right hand, your hold being a little above the winch. Your hand must not close upon your rod with the thumb turned over your knuckles, as if you were about to strike a blow. Your fingers round the rod must simply entwine it, not squeeze it, and your thumb must lie straight with your arm on the upper part of the butt, the first joint being very slightly bent, and the fleshy or flat forepart of the thumb pressing on the rod. Hold your rod up nearly perpendicular, and pointing rather to the left side. Take the tip of the line between the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand. Poise your rod loosely and easily, and see that it balances freely in your right hand. Be devoid of that fear which begets awkwardness. What injury can you do? You are not going to explode a mine. You are merely going to throw a thin line with a thin limber rod upon the water. What if you shiver them to pieces in the attempt? The damage can be remedied.

I suppose you now on a bank above some river's surface, all ready for your first cast. Move your right wrist and fore-arm round to the right, letting go, just as it begins to get taut, the tip of the line in your left fingers, and bring round from left to right over your right shoulder the upper part of your rod, describing with the point of it

THROWING THE LINE AND FLIES.

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an irregular a horse-shoe-circle, and then cast forward with a flinging motion of the wrist and fore-arm. The motion of the wrist must predominate over that of the fore-arm and elbow joint. If you follow the above motions exactly and with freedom, from four to five feet of your line, supposing you to have between three and four yards of it out, should fall lightly upon the water. If that length do not you are wrong, and you must go on casting and casting, practising and practising, until you are right.

At first you will find, unless you are very handy and a very apt scholar indeed, that nearly all your line will fall upon the water, and that the top of your rod will come in contact with the surface of it. These are the greatest drawbacks to throwing a line well, and if not overcome the learner must never expect to become an expert fly-fisher. With might and main he must struggle to vanquish them. They are caused by letting the fore-arm fall too low whilst casting, and bending the body forward with the downward motion of the arm.

Here is the remedy. When you have made your casting movement-brought round your rod and line over the head, and propelled them forwards, the wrist must be gradually checked the instant the line is straightening itself in its onward course. The body must be upright, the chest held rather