Forgotten Treasures #19: THE SPECKLED BROOK TROUT--PART I

Something different this time. Based on the admittedly unsupported
supposition that there really are readers in ROFF who would like to see
something other than the usual vacuous cult of personality hilariously
masquerading as "political discussion," and repeatedly say so vehemently,
while contributing to....and even initiating more of the same, and this
despite offering nothing of substance in its stead, it occurs to me that an
effort (however feeble) to match it at least in sheer volume might be in
order. Thus, the whole book, presented over the course of the next several
days in 10 parts:

1. PREFACE--Louis Rhead.
BAPTISM OF THE BROOK TROUT--Charles Hallock.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TROUT FAMILY--Charles Hallock.
2. BIG TROUT OF THE NEPIGON, LAKE EDWARD, LAKE BATISCAN, ETC --E.T.D.
Chambers
3. THE HABITS OF THE TROUT--Wm. C. Harris.
4. THE OLD ADIRONDACKS--Charles Hallock.
5. THE NEW ADIRONDACKS--Charles Hallock.
6. AN ANGLER'S NOTES ON THE BEAVERKILL--Benjamin Kent.
7. WINGED ENEMIES OF THE BROOK TROUT--J. Annin, Jr.
8. TROUT PROPAGATION--A. Nelson Cheney.
9. SOME NOTES ON COOKING BROOK TROUT--Louis Rhead.
10. ALONG A TROUT-STREAM--L. F. Brown

To date, I have transcribed and proofread roughly two thirds of the text
from a PDF file (because trying to figure out how to convert it is more of a
pain in the ass than transcribing it manually....and I need the typing
practice anyway). I chose to do so in Microsoft Word because experience has
taught me that saving and returning to draft copies in Outlook Express, my
vehicle for dealing with ROFF.....for better or worse, is an even bigger
pain in the ass. I hope I've got the formatting bugs worked out. We'll see
when this is posted. If the result turns out badly, I'll make what changes
I can in the following parts. So far, I've found just one small section of
the scanned original that is unreadable due to something covering a bit of
the text which no one bothered to remove. This section is clearly marked in
the transcribed text by inclusion in square brackets and is followed by my
initials, like this: [blah ... lah ... bl ... blah. w.s.]. Any other notes
I may choose to include will be similarly delineated. Readers familiar with
some of the places mentioned in the text (and/or English as she is wrote
today) will note some peculiar spellings. I have retained the original
spellings throughout....except, possibly, where this stupid software has
made automatic corrections that I may have missed.

Um......that's all for now.

Enjoy!
_____________________________________


THE SPECKLED BROOK TROUT



(Salvelinus Fontinalis)



BY VARIOUS EXPERTS WITH ROD

AND REEL EDITED AND

ILLUSTRATED

BY LOUIS RHEAD

WITH

AN INTRODUCTION BY

CHARLES HALLOCK
_____________________________________

PART I:

PREFACE



The extreme popularity of the Brook Trout has been fully proved by the host
of anglers who fish for him, and it can scarcely be necessary to solicit
their favor toward a volume embellished with pictures reproduced in later
and better methods than any that have hitherto appeared, and with
contributions by different experts will know in departments of the art of
angling.



The Editor originally intended to issue a series of volumes under the title
of "A Library of Rod and Gun," and still may do so should a kindly reception
be given this volume by lovers of nature and of angling.



The first object of this work is to supply general information on the
Salvelinus fontinalis. It is hoped that it will also prove of interest to
amateurs as well as to expert anglers, who will add it to their list of
books to take on their trips to read and re-read at odd times-not too bulky
or crowded with technical terms or matter of little interest to the average
fisherman who is interested in angling only as a sport or pleasure and
change from the activity of city life and business cares.



So much has been written and still remains to written, an Editor's greatest
difficulty is to condense matter pertaining to this particular fish when
articles are contributed by a number of writers, but, for the generous
assistance (in many small details) of two veteran editor-authors, Charles
Hallock and Wm. C. Harris, who have for more than half a century cast the
fly and used the pen, the Editor's incompetency would have been more
apparent.



My thanks are due to Mr. Annin for his article on "Winged Enemies of Trout;"
again to Mr. Hallock for his delightful poem; and to the memory of the late
Nelson Cheney, who but a short time before his sudden death cheerfully gave
me permission to use, and promised to add matter to his article on "Trout
Propagation" from the State report; to Mrs. Mary Orvis Marbury for her
selection and arrangement of the colored sheet of flies, made especially by
her for this volume; indeed, to all the authors who have contributed their
best efforts and whose friendly interest made the labor most agreeable, and
lastly to Mr. Russell, who has in every way been lavish, not only in
expenditure but in many little artistic details which have made all his
books so choice.



In behalf of the Publisher, I wish to acknowledge indebtedness to the
courtesy of Harper & Brothers for the use of an article written thirty years
ago by Charles Hallock in "The Fishing Tourist," and to Town Topics for the
use of parts of an article on the old and the changed Adirondacks.



LOUIS RHEAD



BAPTISM OF THE BROOK TROUT



I am Salmo fontinalis,

To the sparkling fountain born,

And my home is where oxalis,

Heather bell and rose adorn

The crystal basin in the dell,

(Undine the wood-nymph knows it well,)

That is where I love to dwell.



There was I baptized and christened,

'Neath the sombre aisles of oar,

Mute the cascade paused and listened,

Never a word the brooklet spoke;

Bobolink was witness then,

Likewise Ousel, Linnet, Wren,

And all the brownies joined "amen."



Noted oft in ancient story,

Erst from immemorial time,

Poets, anglers, hermits hoary

Confirm my vested rights sublime.

All along the mountain range,

"'Tis writ in mystic symbols strange;

"Naught shall abrogate or change."



Thus as Salmo Fontinalis

Recognized the wide world o'er,*

In my limpid crystal palace,

Content withal, I ask no more;

Leaping through the rainbow spray,

Snatching flies the livelong day.

Naught to do but live and play.



*But scientists have changed this most appropriate designation to S.
Salvelinus, more's the pity!







GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TROUT FAMILY





As Old as the Hills



According to Dr. Shufeldt, an eminent and trustworthy authority, the
Salmonidae date back to the Tertiary Period. He thinks it probable that at
the opening of the Glacial Epoch the fresh waters of North America swarmed
with various Salmonoid fishes. At the close of that epoch, all the streams
and basins which had been subjected to its influence were gouged out and
destroyed, and their ichthic tenants summarily dispossessed. One direct
result was to drive a portion into the sea, notably the salmons and the sea
trout, which there became habilitated.



The effect of the ice-blanket which so long overlaid the earth was to cool
the earth's heated and plastic crust, thereby causing shrinkage, which in
turn created fissures, both superficial and subterrene; and these served as
conduits for the fluvial output from the dissolving glacial sheet, and as
passageways for the slamonidae.





Distribution.



Throughout subsequent ages subterranean streams have played a very important
part in fish distribution, especially in affording passage under mountain
elevations and high table-lands, which would otherwise have proved
insurmountable obstacles to superficial transit. Of the existence of a
subterranean fluvial system co-extensive with the continental area, and
having intimate connection with the ocean, we have abundant manifestations.
The remarkable fresh-water ebullitions in the Gulf of Mexico, the fathomless
sinkholes and mammoth springs in the adjacent peninsula of Florida, the
re-entering "zanates" on the coast of Mexico, and the copious gushes of oil,
gas, and water which break out of the sands and rocks all over the
continent, are striking and familiar attestations. So, also, sudden changes
are occasionally observed in the quality and color of interior ponds, with
metamorphoses of their bottom floors, and of the living organisms which they
generate and nurture; and there are intermittent ebbs and flows in the Great
Lakes, after the similitude of tides. Many lakes do not diminish by
outflow, evaporation, or absorption, in the hottest weather, nor overflow in
the wettest seasons, remaining always at a uniform stage. Others suddenly
lose half their volume, or drain off altogether. Some swarm with fish at
times, and again are apparently barren. All of the phenomena are easily
accounted for on the hypothesis of underground connection and in no other
way.



As a matter of fact, there is a far more copious and extensive fluvial
system under the earth than there is on top of it, and engorgement thereof
forcing the flow to the surface, where it finds vent and manifestation
through crater cones, geysers, sink-holes, artesian wells, and intermittent
springs; also throwing out fish, not eyeless cave-dwellers, but wide-awake,
lusty and well formed specimens of whitefish, sunfish, goggle-eyes,
mud-cats, blue-cats, suckers, eels, bass, and pike-perch, as well as lizards
and sea-shrimps. We do not find trout represented in the list because it is
a primitive species, the subterranean streams having accomplished their
general distribution ages ago, under the dispensation of the period. Blind
fishes are not thrown out, because they are committed to the lock-up for
life, segregated in underground pockets which have, perhaps, no available
outlets. At all events, the eyeless fishes which we find in the Mammoth
Cave of Kentucky and elsewhere, have become so adapted to their environment
and to acquired methods of procuring subsistence, that they seem content,
and attempt no exit. It is not assumed that the hard lethe-like waters of
the deeper fluvial veins take any part in this economy of fish distribution,
for assuredly no life can exist therein, impregnated as they are with salts
and base solution. Surface water, too, imbibes the impurities of the earth
or soil over which it passes, and it is only when it has been filtered by
percolation through sand and gravel beds that it becomes as pure as when it
first descended in rainfall. In such pellucid fluid, drawn fresh from the
bosom of mother earth, the trout thrive best, and in its vivifying arteries,
borne under-ground, the salmonidae have been passed from one antipodal
locality to another, at various depths, according to the lay of the land.



Distribution by other than subterranean waterways is various. The presence
of alien species in landlocked waters is often due to overflows, freshets,
and cataclysms. Transportation by migratory birds and even by insects, and
precipitation by cloud-bursts and waterspouts, are of frequent occurrence.
There is beyond all an accepted theory of aerial incubation of fish ova
which are held in suspension in the upper atmosphere until the hatched-out
fry drop to earth or convenient water spaces in some rainfall. One most
potential factor in mechanical distribution is the sturdy pelican, whose
range of habitat is of great extent, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the
sub-Arctic regions. In his capacious pouch he will carry quantities of
assorted fish, alive, over long distances, often sitting down beside some
lake or pond to feed upon his catch, and spilling the overplus into the
water.



In current years, human agency is scattering broad-cast, populating new
streams or rehabilitating those which have become barren. Indeed, the
presence of trout in a large majority of amorphous locations can be
historically accounted for. For instance, s. fontinalis, which is now
diffused all over the Appalachian Ridge in Virginia, Tennessee, North and
South Carolina, and even in Northeastern Georgia, often attaining a weight
of two pounds, was introduced by General Wade Hampton some fifty years ago,
and only last summer I saw him at Sapphire, at the age of eighty-seven,
enjoying the fruits of his providential forethought. The speckled trout of
Castalia, O., were planted by the club which appropriated that famous spring
and converted it into a fruitful stream a quarter of a century back. The
monster rainbow trout (s. iridius), of Macon County, N. C., were planted at
Highlands twenty years ago by Henry Stewart, of New Jersey, and the Sapphire
Lake trout, of the same species, by the Toxaway Company, who are chiefly
Pittsburg gentlemen. Some of these introduced rainbow trout have been
caught weighing five pounds, and even more. The rainbow trout of Cumberland
County, in central North Carolina, were planted at my request by D. C.
Ravenel, of the United States Fish Commission. German trout (s. fario) and
Loch Leven trout (s. levenensis) have been introduced from abroad into many
locations never before occupied by any of the Salmo family, and are found to
thrive. In fine, the brook trout of North America and his congeners, large
and small, not only "use" in mountain-streams, but in the wide rivers and
lakes, as well as in salty estuaries, and along the sea-shore. They occupy
the whole of British America except the continental mid-way and are included
in no less than thirty-nine States and Territories. Trout of some sort are
found in the six New England States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,
Missouri, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North
Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona,
Chihuahua, Texas, and Alaska. It is not native to any of those Italicized,
and is found in very limited portions only of New Jersey, Maryland, South
Carolina, Georgian, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas. Since a century ago we
have discovered and enumerated the most of them and, at last, dios gratios!
affixed a nomenclature (more or less trinomial) which it may be hoped will
stand as long as men fish and trout swim; of at least during the lifetime of
the present generation.


Species and Varieties



In making these traverses from one geographical division to another, and
from one quality of water to another, as affected by impregnation of salts,
oxides and what not, the trout creation must have undergone those physical
modifications and changes in habits, and perhaps in markings and coloration,
which are conspicuous throughout the family; thereby establishing from time
to time new species, as well as varieties not recognized by scientists as
species. These find taxonomic expression in kaleidoscopic body-patterns
(like the orchids and begonias), as well as in form, size, weight, tint of
flesh, and rapidity of growth. Thus we have the diminutive blue-back of the
Rangeleys, seldom exceeding four ounces in average weight; the gigantic lake
trout (namaycush), attaining 100 pounds; the sea trout of British America, a
purely marine fish, ranging coastwise from Maine to Alaska, feeding along
shore, spawning in the estuaries at the head of the tide, and seldom running
up more than a mile or two into the fresh-water streams; the red-spotted
Dolly Vardens of California; the rainbow trout of the Rockies; the red trout
of Idaho; the black-spotted varieties of the continental Divide; the
steelheads of Oregon; the olivaceous trouts of our Eastern lakes; the black
togue of Maine; the silvery trout of the Penobscot Basin; the white trout of
Lock Lomond in the Province of New Brunswick; and, best known and most
attractive of all, the radiant brook trout of New England, with its spangles
of crimson, blue, and orange, its mottled upper fins and vermiculated back,
its crimson pectoral fins edged with black and white, its varying weights,
it gameness on the hook and off it, its bravery in the ring, and its
all-round vigor and beauty-all of which give to it an individuality which
has made it conspicuous in song and story since the day of its advent. The
Messenger Brothers, of Boston, once put an equal number of black bass and
trout of different sizes in a large aquarium to discover the survival of the
fittest, giving no food, but leaving them to prey on each other; and in
spite of all the sharp spines and protecting scale armor of the bass, the
trout had equal honors! Out of two even dozen four of each survived.



As long ago as 1748, the Russian naturalist, George Stellar, made known the
salmonidae of the Pacific coast. In 1804, Lewis and Clark, American
explorers, added some Rocky Mountain species. In 1855, Dr. Suckley, of the
Pacific Railway Survey, gave a list of seventeen peculiar to the waters of
Washington and Oregon. "Hallock's Gazetteer" enumerated and described some
twenty or more recognized species in 1877; at which date ichthyology was
hardly out of kindergarten. Since then, immense strides have been made in
the pursuit of this science, chiefly under the tutelage of the inimitable
United States Fish Commission, with its manifold equipments; so that it has
been able to discover and classify not only the trouts, but all the salt and
fresh water genera of the continent.



A recent official summary of American trout, prepared for me by courtesy of
William C. Harris, author of "North American Fishes," gives thirty-eight
species, besides three introduced from Europe, and not including the sea
trout (s. Canadensis and immaculatus), which was recognized as a distinct
species by Smith, Storer, Scott, Hallock, and other early ichthyologists, in
contravention of the present standard of differentiation, which is based on
anatomical structure entirely:

SUMMARY OF AMERICAN TROUTS.



Salmon Trouts.



Cutthroat or Rocky Mountain Trout-Salmo Clarkii.

Yellowstone Trout-Salmo Clarkii lewisi-sub-species represented in the
tributaries of the Columbia River by Salmo Clarkii gibsii-sub-species.

Lake Tahoe Trout-Salmo Clarkii Henshawi-sub-species.

Utah Lake Trout-Salmo Clarkii virginalis-sub-species.

Rio Grande Trout-Salmo Clarkii spilurus-sub-species.

Colorado River Trout-Salmo Clarkii pleuriticus-sub-species.

Waha Lake Trout-Salmo Clarkii bouveri-sub-species.

Green-back Trout-Salmo Clarkii stomias-sub-species.

Yellow-fin Trout-Salmo Clarkii Macdonaldi-sub-species.

Silver Trout of Lake Tahoe-Salmo Clarkii tahoenensis-sub-species.

Salmon Trout of Lake Sutherland-Salmo Clarkii declivifrons-sub-species.

Spotted Trout of Lake Sutherland-Salmo Clarkii Jordani-sub-species.

Long-headed Trout of Lake Crescent-Salmo bathoecetor.

Steelhead Trout-Salmo gairdneri.

Kamloops Trout-Salmo gairdneri Kamloops-sub-species.

Blue-backed Trout of Lake Crescent-Salmo gairdneri beardsleei-sub-species.

Speckled Trout of Lake Crescent-Salmo gairdneri crescentis-sub-species.

The Rainbow Trout-Salmo irideus.

The Rainbow Trout of West Oregon-Salmo irideus masoni-sub-species.

The Rainbow Trout of McCloud River-Salmo irideus Shasta-sub-species.

The Kern River Trout-Salmo irideus gilberti-sub-species.

The Nissull or No-shee Trout-Salmo irideus stoneri-sub-species.

The Golden Trout of Mt. Whitney-Salmo irideus aqua-bonita-sub-species.





Char Trouts.



The Great Lake Trout-Cristivomer namaycush-represented in Lake Superior by
Cristivomer namaycush siscowet-sub-species.

Eastern Brook or Red-spotted Trout-Salvelinus fontinalis.

Dublin Pond Trout-Salvelinus fontinalis agassizii-sub-species.

Dolly Varden Trout-Salvelinus parkei.

Dolly Varden Trout of Kamchatka-Salvelinus Kundscha.

Saibling or European Char-Salvelinus alpinus.

Long-finned Char-Salvelinus Alpinus Alipes-sub-species.

Greenland Char-Salvelinus Alpinus Stagnalis-sub-species.

American Arctic Char-Salvelinus Alpinus Arcturus-sub-species.

Sunapee Trout-Salvelinus Alpinus Aureolus-sub-species.

Blue-backed or Oquassa Trout-Salvelinus Oquassa.

The Naresi Trout-Salvelinus Oquassa Naresi-sub-species.

The Lac de Marbre Trout-Salvelinus Oquassa Marstoni-sub-species.



Introduced Salmon Trouts.



German, brown or Von Behr Trout-Salmo fario.

Loch Leven Trout-Salmo Levenensis.







Ethics of the woods.



Has anyone ever thought of the trout as a great moral agent, a conservator
of human welfare, as well as a contributor to sport? If not, why not?



Let us consider: Has not this universal favorite among game-fishes posed for
decades as an economic factor to increase the revenues of States and
replenish depleted exchequers? Has he not led the prospector and explorer
up the unmapped defiles to the crown of the divide and discovered rare
plants, timber tracts, precious ores, and water-powers? Has he not
stimulated a love for nature, made men good, virtuous, and humane? Given
occupation to idlers, lured loafers from demoralizing environment, filled
libraries with poetry, belles lettres, and an angling bibliography as unique
as it is entertaining? Has he not, in fact, been a potential instrument to
distribute population over the wilderness places, and so filled up the
Arcadian recesses of the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the White Mountains,
the Appalachians, the Rockies, and the Cascades with cottages, parks, and
summer hotels, where the worker and wage-earner may rest from their labors
and the butterflies of fashion find a healthful and aesthetic Elysium?



Reflecting in its piebald garb the iridescence of the gauze-winged ephemera
and parti-colored flowers which bespangle its sequestered haunts in the
leafy month of June, it inspires poets, generates good-fellowship, soothes
the sullen moods of hermits, and makes good comrades of us all. It is
associated with nature in her most winsome phases, and none can cultivate
its acquaintance without becoming the better man. With a good supper at
hand in a rustic camp, after a tiresome day, orisons and benisons rise
spontaneously.





Insects as Food.



Oh, leafy June! Animate with countless insect forms! Beneath each maturing
leaf bursts the opening chrysalis. Upon the flux of the eddy floats the
empty caddis boats, their whilom tenants already translated to the upper
ether. Fleets of gnat-rafts, tossed about and broken up by the tumbling
foam of the cascades release the myriads of inexorable midgets, which pursue
the angler through the summer months and vex his waking hours. Gaunt
mosquitoes wriggle out of their swaddling clothes to pipe their
resurrection-song and range afar in quest of blood. Wherever we turn,
whether on land or water, under this decaying leaf or in that rotten log, in
the folds of the alder leaves, trees, and willows which overhang the
streams, among the succulent weeds which carpet the ponds and river-bottoms,
within the mosses which cling to the trees, and in the corrugated bark
wherever it grows, we shall find in this month of June an infinite variety
of beetles, flies, moths, grubs, larvae, aphides, worms, chrysalides, etc.,
which comprise the main food supply of the brook-trout and his congeners of
lake and river. Insects and trout are the principal tenants of all forested
areas where water spaces occur. When forests disappear the trout disappear,
because their food supply is cut off.



The same law applies to the salmon. All salmon streams head in the forests,
but the incidents of civilization have depleted most of the rivers on the
Atlantic coast. The Hudson, the Connecticut, the Merrimac, the Kennebec,
the Penobscot, and the Aroostook, all salmon streams erstwhile, and many
Nova Scotia rivers also, became barren long before artificial or natural
obstructions barred their ascent. This postulate of food supply would seem,
then, to settle the much-discussed question whether salmon eat in fresh
water while on their way to the spawning beds. Insects are their chief
sustenance in the sylvan streams, and they eat there to live. It would be
inexplicable, indeed, if salmon alone of all creatures were not required by
nature to fortify and strengthen themselves for the supreme work of
procreation. It depends, however, upon the length of rivers whether they
feed. If the rivers be short, like those of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and
Alaska, the run is short, and the necessity of eating minimized; but in
large rivers, like those of New Brunswick and the Pacific side, it is
different.





Other Trout Food.



There are some localities like the Great Lakes where insect forms are
replaced by other kinds of food, because they are prevalent. Flies are
therefore disregarded, though the instinct of pursuit being dominant, some
trout are taken with flies. For the same reason, salmon roe is the
preferred bait on the Pacific coast, comprising as it does the principal
food of the river trout during the spawning season of the half-dozen kinds
of salmon which frequent them. In semi-arid foot-hills of the Rocky
Mountain chain, grasshoppers are the choice. In Pennsylvania "curly jukes,"
or water-shrimps, are attractive. On the Jordan, in Michigan, a bug
contrived of a lump of squirrel meat with trout fins for wings made an
effective lure in lumber days a quarter of a century ago. At other times
and places cut bait, trout eyes and fins, pennyroyal buds, and bits of red
flannel will catch fish. All the same, artificial flies are killing
wherever one goes, and will move a trout at one time if not at another; so
that it is begging the question to say that in such and such waters they
will not rise to the fly. Early morning and evening is the best time to
make the test. The best lure at all times is what they seem to be feeding
on, or are accustomed to feed upon. This is an axiom. In forest precincts
flies are naturally the most attractive in summer.



Why Trout Chase Flies.



The instinct of quest, therefore, prompts the trout to pursue and seize all
objects moving in his native element which attract his attention. Nothing
comes amiss, large or small, be it chipmunk, mouse, frog, minnow, bug,
miller, grub, grasshopper, worm, or fly, without regard to contour or color,
though the more familiar forms are the most attractive, especially in the
season of the year when they propagate and multiply. Such being the case,
it has always puzzled me to know why the water-sprites (nepidae) and
whirligigs (gyrinidae), which skip and gyrate all over the eddies at the
foot of waterfalls and dams, are so singularly exempt. I have never
detected a trout in an attempt to seize one of these long-shanked and
steel-clad harlequins, and the insects in question seem to have no fear of
the trout. Why is this thus? Are the tings poisonous, or indigestible? or
are their toenails sharp, like the Irishman's humming-bird?



Bait and Fly.



Some professionals delight to declare that they never fish for trout except
with flies, as if that indicated the thoroughbred. Well? I grant that
fly-fishing is the kindlier, gentler, and cleaner practice, though I think
the advantages of the two methods are about equally balanced, id one is to
consider conditions, seasons, and opportunities, and the other incidentals
outlined in the books. One will often carry where the other fails. It is
not beyond depth to say that if the soi distant fly-caster sticks doggedly
to his high perch, despising the other, he will some day have to depend on
his camp companion to feed the frying-pan. There are lots of fake anglers,
especially at the tournaments. There are prize-winners at the score who are
dunces on the riverside.

But what is fly-fishing in esse? I am always shy of the angler who talks of
the advantage of shotting his fly and letting it sink a foot or two. That
man is not a fly-fisher in fact. Why? Well, what is a fly? Is it an
insect which dives, lives under water, and sinks to the bottom like a corpse
over the ship's side at sea? Oh no! A fly is a creature of the upper air,
now touching the surface of the water, anon soaring aloft, here an instant
and gone the next, restless as a humming-bird, seldom still. Why, the
shotted fly has not even the attributes of a beetle, or a grasshopper, or
any other clumsy insect which happens to have wings. It has no buoyancy or
life. It cannot rise or even maintain itself on the surface unless the
current be swift. It is inanimate and dead. Fly-fishing indeed! Why, man
alive! Fly-fishing is an art which brooks no compromise. Cross it with
other methods and you have a nonentity, if not a sterile hybrid. In the
same category I place all automatic devices and combination baits. Such
mechanical "jacks-at-all-trades" simply demoralize the true angler and kill
genius. They are inventions of necessity and not of sport. Now, may the
reader pardon me! As this paper was not intended to be a dissertation on
angling technology, but a general description of the trout family, and his
idiosyncrasies. Summarily, the essence of the art called gentle is to know
how to find the trout first and then to present the lure as naturally as
possible, without occasioning alarm. The sequence comes with the play on
the line; the reward with the heavy basket.





Fisherman's Luck.



Questions repeatedly present themselves to the craft in this wise: Given an
abounding trout stream, why does the catch vary so much with equal experts?
And why do not all the likely places on a pond or stream pan out alike? Why
do we catch a dozen fish in one hole and only one or two, or none, in
another equally promising? Why will one angler whip a stream successfully
and his partner come home light? Or, of two men in a boat, why will one
take ten fish to the other's none? Is it not because the laws of
association govern the streams, as well as the forest and field, or even
human communities? Accordingly, we find hermits, guerillas, wayfarers, and
coteries among trout, as well as communities and schools. Trout have their
social sets and their upper ten. There are royal nibs on every stream who
appropriate the choicest feeding-places and the securest holes under the
bank, dominating the smaller fish and keeping them up-stream in the shallow
waters. If your angler happens to strike a school or a Newport set, he is
O.K. Again, in lakes and ponds it makes every difference in the fisherman's
luck whether his end of the boat or raft lies over the ledge, or off it, or
over its edge, or whether he drops his line in the clear cold spring-holes
where the assembled trout wave their fins contentedly, or casts his lure
over the mud bottoms and weedy flats.



With these few hints, I leave the unsophisticated reader to his reflections,
and the wiseacres to kindly criticism. It is never well to crowd a stream;
for crossed lines never cement good-fellowship.



END PART I

On Apr 28, 12:45 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

snip
I have retained the original
spellings throughout....except, possibly, where this stupid software has
made automatic corrections that I may have missed.
snip

As one who is familiar with several scholars who deal with Renaissance
(and earlier) texts in English, I am familiar enough with Word to know
that you can turn off the spelling auto-correct features. Go to Tools-
Options-Spelling&Grammar. Deselect "check spelling as you type"
option. And any of the other "auto" options. Feel free to spell
however you'd like :-)

I believe I have mentioned to you my reading backlog. Thanks for
piling on.

Carry on,
Bill

On Apr 28, 11:51 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...

Thanks for piling on.

Oh, you're QUITE welcome!

Turns out I may be able to help you with those poorly scanned pages.
It would appear that we have a copy of the book in our collection,
though *where* it is (sweartagod it's not in my office) seems to be a
bit of a mystery, not to be resolved until Monday. I'll drop you a
line when we find it and we can work a little something out. :-)

For those of you who enjoy such things, it is worthwhile looking at
the scanned version on Google Books. The illustrations are quite
excellent.

B

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 28, 12:45 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

snip
I have retained the original
spellings throughout....except, possibly, where this stupid software has
made automatic corrections that I may have missed.
snip

As one who is familiar with several scholars who deal with Renaissance
(and earlier) texts in English, I am familiar enough with Word to know
that you can turn off the spelling auto-correct features. Go to Tools-
Options-Spelling&Grammar. Deselect "check spelling as you type"
option. And any of the other "auto" options.

Fortunately, even I was able to figure that out after several years of
tearing large handfuls of hair off the top of my head. But I've never been
able to stick permanently to a decision about whether to leave the
auto-correct on or off. When it's on, I have to go back and uncorrect all
the **** I want left as is......and when it's off I leave my own
typographical spoor all over the page. Either way, I have to stop at the
end of each page, use the spell-checker and scrutinze the whole thing word
by word, knowing full well that errors, in addition to the well-known and
insidious wrong words spelled correctly, will nevertheless remain. I've
worked out a not entirely satisfying but useable compromise for this
extended exercise in transcription. I leave the auto-correct on most of the
time, thus eliminating some of the worst damage done by wayward fingers on
the keyboard. But I've also created a custom dictionary just for the
Forgotten Treasures series (well, and a couple of other personal but closely
related projects). I've had to add a LOT of words to this custom
dictionary, but it has started to pay off nicely in the last year or so.

Feel free to spell
however you'd like :-)

Philosophically, in the abstract, I can accept and even embrace that
attitude. It will come as a bit of a shock to many here, but I AM actually
capable of thumbing my nose....a little bit......sometimes.....at
convention. In the breach, though, as a lover of language and, more
pointedly, as a one-time typesetter/copy-editor/proofreader/etc. in a print
shop, I find myself horrified.....not so much by the errors, per se, but at
having missed them.

I believe I have mentioned to you my reading backlog.

Yeah, I got your e-mail. I set some time aside yesterday to write a
response, but things got a bit squirrely at work and I ended up spending
pretty much the whole day working. Left me sort of dazed and confused.
With any luck at all, things will return to normal on Monday.

Thanks for piling on.

Oh, you're QUITE welcome!

Wolfgang

wrote in message
ups.com...

Turns out I may be able to help you with those poorly scanned pages.
It would appear that we have a copy of the book in our collection,
though *where* it is (sweartagod it's not in my office) seems to be a
bit of a mystery, not to be resolved until Monday. I'll drop you a
line when we find it and we can work a little something out. :-)

Ah, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Bill.

Wolfgang