ANGLING ON THE BORDERS. 31 



seems to be caused by the bursting forth of a swarm 

 of insects, which, issuing in the fullness of their time 

 and of their wings from below the stones, begin their 

 precarious dance along the surface of the water, in 

 which they soon terminate their few minutes of winged 

 existence. It is, we may remark, a mistake to suppose 

 that the life of these insects is ephemeral. They have 

 been alive, and pretty active, for months before, under 

 the stones in the water or at the water-side, and their 

 wings are merely the garb which they don to dance 

 merrily to their death. 



As it is chiefly the necessity for the concealment of 

 the angler that renders it desirable for him to fish up 

 the stream, he should take every means in his power 

 to render that concealment complete. He must take 

 care that his shadow or the shadow of his rod, does 

 not fall on the water ; and he should also constantly 

 consider whether, when standing erect, he is not 

 likely personally to attract the attention of trout lying 

 where his fly has fallen. In most cases, indeed, he 

 must stoop to conquer. He must often creep, he must 

 sometimes crawl — not only emulating the . wisdom, 

 but imitating the motion, of the serpent. When he 

 stands erect, the trout's line of vision towards him is 

 only through a small portion of the water, and the 

 greater part through the air ; when he brings himself 

 down nearly to the trout's level, the line of vision has 

 to pass obliquely through a quantity of water before it 

 rises, so that though he may be full in view, probably 

 the trout cannot see so far through a medium so dense. 

 Next in importance to concealment of himself, is con- 

 cealment of his tackle, and, to effect this, we shall 



