Sight 309 



No angler has ever caught on a mountain 

 stream, or in any other water, a bUnd or partially 

 blind trout, that was in good physical condition ; 

 it was starving because it could not see to feed. 

 Observe a number of trout in a stream with 

 their heads up current ; how they dart here 

 and there at every small object that floats by 

 them, at a distance often of ten to twenty 

 feet, and then nose it, and, if unfit for food, 

 turn tail upon it ; but if an insect, alive or 

 drowned, comes down with the current, they 

 will seize and swallow it with avidity. In this 

 case there is a combination of the two senses — 

 sight and taste. 



Again, and from the angling standpoint, why 

 does the farmer's boy who bushwhacks the trout 

 from behind the bushes, or the cautious angler, 

 adopting somewhat similar methods, catch more 

 fish than one who splashes down-stream, when 

 every bottom pebble, sand bar, or rock is glinting 

 with the reflected light of a bright noonday's sun ? 

 Remember, also, that when fishing up a small 

 stream in a dashing rift, the tumult of which 

 drowns all possible noise made by wading against 

 the current, that trout will come down, scurrying 

 past the fisher's feet, from the eddies on either 



