THE DUFFER'S FORTNIGHT 215 



I leave the confession unaltered as it points a moral 

 or two. 



" There was a certain piquancy about my first 

 view of the Mayfly this year, because it came within 

 a week of my last view of the March brown, and 

 I was able to compare the creatures with a freshness 

 of interest that was gratifying. I remember think- 

 ing well of the Mayfly, and disparaging the March 

 brown, because I was sure that the larger and later 

 insect would make ample amends for the scandalous 

 behaviour of the smaller and earlier. Now I want 

 something larger and later still, which shall make 

 good the abominable deficiencies of the Mayfly. 

 Not to put too fine a point upon it I should like 

 dragon-flies to become trout-food all through July 

 and to enable me so to catch something. I badly 

 desire to have some satisfactory standard of com- 

 parison by which I may disparage the Mayfly 

 thoroughly and reduce it to the level of the yellow 

 May dun which trout do not take. They do not 

 take the Mayfly either, of course, not really, but 

 people think they do. I wish to expose that fiction 

 by the aid of a dragon-fly carnival and enormous 

 fish safely landed with No. 10 hooks. People would 

 know then that the Mayfly is not the real thing. 



" By way of preparation for this, let me with 

 brief dignity relate my experiences. First there 

 was a day on the Siurcy stream which of old misled 



