I think I told you that I am not a Purist. Perhaps it is unnecessary to repeat it. But I want you to make no mistake. I fish by the dry-fly method because it suits my sluggish habits better than any other form of fly-fishing. But I claim no superiority for it over other methods. If I were not afraid of gentles I should no doubt be a roach-master, or something quite stationary like that. Now, sluggish though I am, my blood can mount at times. And, apropos of the dry-fly school, I feel it mounting now.
It is popularly supposed that dry-fly fishing is excessively difficult—difficult, I mean, beyond every other form of the art. I do not know who is responsible for this imposture. I imagine it must be the genius or genii who first applied the words "chuck and chance it" and "fine and far off" to the wet and dry methods respectively. I cannot think that any two epithets have ever
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