114 SPECKLED TROUT. 



cattle scare the fish, and soil their element and break 

 down their retreats under the banks. Wood-land 

 alternates the best with meadow : the creek loves to 

 burrow under the roots of a great tree, to scoop out 

 a pool after leaping over the prostrate trunk of one, 

 and to pause at the foot of a ledge of moss-covered 

 rocks, with ice-cold water dripping down. How 

 straight the current goes for the rock ; note its cor- 

 rugated, muscular appearance, it strikes and glances 

 off, but accumulates, deepens with well-defined ed- 

 dies above arid to one side ; on the edge of these the 

 trout lurk and spring upon their prey. 



The angler learns that it is generally some obsta- 

 cle or hindrance that makes a deep place in the creek, 

 as in a brave life, and his ideal brook is one that lies 

 in deep, well-defined banks, yet makes many a shift 

 from right to left, meets with many rebuffs and ad- 

 ventures, hurled back upon itself by rocks, waylaid 

 by snags and- trees, tripped up by precipices, but 

 sooner or later reposing under meadow banks, deep- 

 ening and eddying beneath bridges, or prosperous 

 and strong in some level stretch of cultivated land 

 with great elms shading it here and there. 



But I early learned that from almost any stream in 

 a trout country the true angler could take trout, and 

 that the great secret was this, that whatever bait you 

 used, worm, grasshopper, grub, or fly, there was one 

 thing you must always put upon your hook, namely, 

 your heart ; when you bait your hook with your 

 heart the fish always bite ; they will jump clean 



