23^ The Trout s of America 



charm of the pastime when, in the cold days of 

 early spring his teeth are apt to chatter, limbs 

 stiffen, and fingers in their rigor, like bars of 

 iron, fail in their firm grasp of the handpiece 

 of the rod. And then, again, the trout, what 

 sluggish, inert things they are ! coming to the fly 

 so lazily and sucking it in so leisurely that an 

 angler, slow as a snail in striking, could never 

 miss a rise or fail to impale the hook. But 

 anglers, of all men, are most widely apart in 

 opinion and practice. Some, whom I have 

 known for years, and they are good fishermen, 

 contend that an east wind is a favorable one, 

 and that they never fail of success during a 

 thunder-storm. Others, again, say they can never 

 catch a trout during the prevalence of a north- 

 west wind nor when it veers from the west to 

 north, but a blow from northeast always fills the 

 creel. 



Trout seem to have an instinctive foreknowl- 

 edge of a rise of water which will enable them 

 to ascend with less discomfort and more rapid- 

 ity to the higher reaches of the stream for the 

 purposes of spawning; and that the rise will 

 furnish them with a greater supply of surface- 

 washed food. Knowing this fact, experienced 



