pink of condition, yet at times of scarcity is known to allow his baser nature to get the better of that reluctance; who in the morning nurses an ambition to bring home a heavy basket; who carries no steelyard, but prefers to allow, in stating the weight of his fish, for the ounces which they lose after death; who employs habitually but few patterns, yet will not disdain in obstinate cases to bring out fancy lures. This man is met with everywhere.
Above him is found the three-fly expert. Two shades of olive and a black gnat are enough for him. He will allow himself a Mayfly when it is on the water, but at other seasons he is rigid. He casts each pattern but once, for, so supreme is his skill, what are called "trial casts" are unknown to his fishing. He calls trout "fario," and possesses a secret recipe for the dressing of a line. Such an one I suspect yonder Purfling to be.
I now come to the point where the taint of blood at last ceases to pollute the fair name of dry-fly fishing. The anglers of whom I have spoken still move upon a lower plane. They all try to catch and kill trout. But with my next example the regions of pure science are entered. For it is, or so I believe, this very point of slaughter which marks off the truly great angler from the merely expert. Yet here again are
