234 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



the other two I did not change. Thus accoutred, with 

 strong-, well-tried rod of thirteen feet ; silent reel, holding 

 sixty yards or thereby of line in its coil, carefully tapered 

 with two or three lengths of twisted gut, and that again 

 with single strands of gradually decreasing thickness, 

 down to the finest on which the hooks were fastened ; and 

 with no thought beyond a good-sized, well-conditioned 

 trout for supper, as my creel was most uncomfortably 

 light, I made for the pool to which I have alluded before. 

 Having soaked the new hook a little, straightened the gut 

 by drawing it once or twice through my fingers, and 

 examined the line generally, I waded cautiously in, 

 through a little, sandy shallow— ^V/^/ made for landing 

 fish — which gradually sloped away to unknown depths in 

 the pool beyond. By this time it might be six o'clock. 

 The sun was still sending his beams slantingly athwart 

 the stream, but a lofty embankment on the opposite side, 

 effectually screened the cast ; and, joyful sight to the 

 somewhat jaded angler, signs were not wanting in sundry 

 dimplings of the water, that the fish were now on the feed. 

 Not without a little twitch of nervous anticipation, such 

 as one sometimes feels when he arrives at a favourite spot 

 which is sure to yield him one or two good ones, did I 

 cast straight out for the deepest part of the black, silent 

 water. A good cast it happened fortunately to be ; that 

 is to say, I managed to reach the spot aimed for, and the 

 point-fly alighted as gently as I could have wished. No 

 sound, no splash, no breaking of the surface followed ; 

 but, instinctively, as the hook was sucked down by some- 

 thing that was not the current, the point of the rod went 



