Part 31

“Good-bye, sweet day, good-bye!

All thy rich gifts my grateful heart remembers,

The while I watched thy sunset’s smouldering embers

Die in the west beneath the twilight gray.

Good-bye, sweet day.”

As the balsam-breathing night wind begins to blow, I turn my back upon the silver glancing of the moonlight on the rippling waves of the fairy lake, and step bravely into the darkness of the woods, where I cannot see the places where my foot shall fall, but I know that others have safely passed it before, and that I shall find comfort and home at the end.

Note.—“Description of a day on Balsam Lake (headwaters of the Beaverkill) where no house was ever built. From the lake it is two miles through the woods (about ten miles in the dark) to the nearest house,”—Extract from letter accompanying article.

“I handle this ‘brown hackle’ as gently as a relic, not alone because it is the memento of an unusual achievement, but because the sight of it brings up vividly before me the beautiful lake where the trout lay; its crystal waters; the glinting of its ruffled surface as the bright sun fell upon it; the densely wooded hills which encircled it; the soughing of the tall pines as the summer’s breeze swept through their branches; and the thrill which coursed through every nerve as trout after trout leaped to the cast, and, after such manipulation and ‘play’ as only those who have had personal experience can comprehend, were duly captured.”—George Dawson.

“Don’t be in too great a hurry to change your flies.”—Francis Francis.

1. Brown Hackle.

2. Scarlet Hackle.

3. White Hackle.

4. Yellow Hackle.

5. Ginger Hackle.

6. Gray Hackle.

7. Black Hackle.

8. Coch-y-Bouddr.

9. Gray Hackle.

1. Emerald Gnat.

2. Black C.

3. Soldier Gnat.

1. Brown Pennell. Pennell Hackles.

2. Yellow Pennell.

3. Green Pennell.

“And now we have got through the poetry of the art. Hitherto things have gone happy as a marriage bell. I unhesitatingly declare, and I confidently appeal to my brother Angler, whether he, a fly fisherman, does not feel similarly. To me fly-fishing is a labor of love; the other is labor—alone. But notwithstanding such are my feelings, it by no means follows that every one else so fancies it. Every one to his taste.”—Capt. Peel (“Dinks”)

“When Spring comes round, look to your tackle with careful inspection, and see that all are in perfect order. Above all, look well to your flies; reject all specimens that have been injured by use, and all frayed gut lengths. It is better to throw away a handful now, than to lose flies and heavy fish together the first time you fasten to a rise.”—Charles Hallock.

“That hook is for a very little fly, and you must make your wings accordingly; for as the case stands it must be a little fly, and a very little one too, that must do your business.”—Charles Cotton.

“For some reason which I have not succeeded in fathoming, the yellow fly always seems to kill best in the position of dropper, or bob-fly, and the green when employed as the stretcher, or tail-fly. The brown can be used in either position.”—H. Gholmon-deley-Pennell.