NEW WATERS 273 



the limits of the fishery, some three miles perhaps, 

 I found every type of water — brattling shallows, 

 deep, swirling holes, ripples under tree roots, dry-fly 

 glides, and also some of that almost dead water, 

 where trout cruise round and round and give the 

 angler such fascinating problems as to getting his 

 fly to the right spot at the right moment. All through 

 there was every indication of really intelligent 

 management, as might be expected of an enterprise 

 undertaken by experts, and it was evident that the 

 right weeds were being encouraged, that mud had 

 been sedulously removed, and that the stream had 

 been coaxed into its most suitable channels — even 

 a little brook running through pretty " stiff " 

 country is liable to make mistakes of direction. 

 An accumulation of mud, for instance, may easily 

 divert the flow from one side, where bushes offer 

 good cover to the fish, to the other, where there 

 is no such advantage. Good keepering is not un- 

 mindful of such things as that. 



What of the fish ? Well, I came upon them on 

 a very bright day after a sjiarp night frost, and right 

 at the end of the season, and I hardly expected to do 

 anything at all, having been warned that the brook 

 was not a chalk stream. On that account I did 

 not hope for anything of a hatch of fly in the day- 

 time. The time of the brief evening rise, moreover, 

 would see me hurrying to the station to begin a 



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