,144 How to obtain it. 



presently another. Strange both are females, and yet not strange 

 either, for the males are higher up, and we often find it so. 

 Further on we go and get another fish- a female too, and ripe, and 

 working hard for more we take at length a couple, one of them a 

 male. But the clouds are gathering on the mountain tops, and 

 the pass is getting choked with mist and threatening snow. A 

 storm is brewing, so we must be quick. There ! we have another 

 male, and letting this suffice we hasten down to lower grounds. 

 The storm comes on apace. The raven croaks above, as wheeling 

 in mid-air he bids defiance to the storm. We hurry on, but before 

 we reach the valley it has burst upon us. There ! we cannot dp 

 better now, so we will stop and spawn our fish under an overhanging 

 rock; then, having milted the ova, get our luncheon, after which 

 rwe wash it and go home, first carefully returning the fish to the 

 stream from which they came. Such is a brief description of a 

 , fairly successful day spent ova hunting, the result being some three 

 or four thousand eggs. There were often many blanks, however. 

 One November morning we started at four o'clock from 

 Grange in Borrowdale to walk to Buttermere. It was cold, clear, 

 and frosty, and "by the pale light of stars " we partially ascended 

 the hill whose summit forms the famous Castle Crag, and then 

 bearing to the right we skirted the fell known as Borrowdale 

 Hause. By the time we had gone a couple of miles a snowstorm 

 met us, and as we proceeded the drifts in some of the gullies we 

 had to cross became uncomfortable. By the time we reached the 

 head of Honister Pass the ground was deeply covered with snow, 

 and when we arrived at the place where we had leave to fish w^ 

 found the water to be so full of snow broth that the fish were not 

 obtainable. Most of them had probably run down into the lake. 

 We tried in vain, and at last gave up the attempt as hopeless, and, 

 with all our paraphernalia of nets and cans, commenced the 

 homeward journey. Up under the famous Honister Crag, with 

 its snow wreaths and black jutting rocks, we passed, and at last 

 reached once more the top of the famous pass. By this time, 

 fortunately, the snow had ceased falling, and we risked the hill, 

 and more than once got buried in a drift for thus defying the 

 elements. However, home was safely reached at last, though 

 minus any ova. 



