30 The North Country Angler. 



the shallows and very near the shore; which 

 has made me wonder that such trouts should 

 come there to feed; but I was soon satisfied 

 aboutit, as you will perceive bj the following story. 



A little below Felton, I was sitting on the 

 bank side, baiting some hooks, and looking upon 

 the water that was very clear and shallow, at the 

 foot of the pool, I saw a great trout come down 

 from the deep ; he turned about and lay in the 

 middle of the current at the head of the stream 

 below ; he made several shoots on both sides, of 

 a yard or two at a time, in ten or twelve mi- 

 nutes ; when, as I suppose, he had got what he 

 could there, he came up the pool about ten or 

 twelve yards, where it was broader, though not 

 more than half a yard deep, and made a tour 

 first to the one side, then to the other ; making 

 oftenlittle excursions, sometimes at the top, some* 

 times at the bottom : I was highly diverted, and 

 never saw a well-trained spaniel traverse a field 

 and quest more regularly and artfully, than this 

 trout did all the lower parts of this pool ; there 

 were several less trouts, but he kept them at a 

 distance. 



This was in June, when trouts are in their 

 prime : I put in two lines there with eight hooks 

 a-piece, and went up to the high end of the 

 pool where there was a broad shallow stream, 

 from which about a dozen trouts, upon seeing 

 me, came down to the deep, two or three of them 

 large ones. I laid two other lines here with eight 

 hooks a-piece; and having ten more baited,! laid 

 two short lines in a little narrow strong stream 

 above. 



