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CHAPTER IV. 



AUTUMN. 



There is a charm in the English autumn to which the 

 angler ought to be peculiarly sensible. The late coming- 

 salmon and sea-trout fishing, wind and weather permitting, 

 is the best of the year, since it is not, in the natural order 

 of things, interfered with by the turbulent floods which 

 follow the melting of the snow, nor reduced by the netters, 

 nor ruined by the low, bright waters of the summer weeks. 

 Autumn is more often reliable, I have noticed, as to 

 weather than other seasons, though there was a miserable 

 exception to the rule in 1882. When the elements are 

 favourable, the water is in excellent condition for the 

 Scotch, Irish, English and Welsh streams visited by the 

 migratory salmon. 



The days, which rapidly close in long before the swallows 

 depart or the leaves fall, are all too short, however, for 

 such out-of-door sports as angling, because the fish have 

 now no inclination to move freely until the forenoon is 

 well advanced. Against this drawback must be written 

 the exquisite tints of the trees, and the bracing air, in 

 which the more active exercises of angling may be con- 

 ducted in comfort. For spinning or trolling, for wielding 

 the big greenheart, the double-handed hickory, or the split 

 cane single-hander, there are no better months than Sep- 

 tember and October ; and as to landscape, I am one of 

 those who love spring, revel in summer, but adore autumn, 



