Trouting. 



unexpected by me, that I hit him too hard and smash my cast, leaving 

 the fly and a foot of gut in the fish's mouth. 



After five minutes' rest I try the companion ; he won't take till I change 

 the dun to a Wickham, and then he comes nobly, and, after a fine bit 

 of sport, comes out l^lb. I see another fish put up just under the bank, 

 but, having disturbed the water, I leave it, and go up for a turn. I do 

 not do any good, and after going up and taking a look at the miUhead, 

 I return and find a good fish rising about a yard or two from the old spot. 

 Once I come over him, and he moved again, and he takes. I had a short 

 fight with him, and got him out — he is an ounce or two heavier than 

 the last, and own brother. I disengage the fly, when, " Hallo ! what's 

 this ? another fly ! By the immortal Jingo, my own fly ; and this is 

 the same fish that carried it off five and twenty minutes' since.* There 

 is no mistake about it. There is the little blue dun I know so well. It 

 went at the knot, for there it is at the end of the link." I hand it to 

 Crayon, who has bagged another brace of nice fish, l|^lb. and l^lb. each, 

 as a curiosity, and he puts it on his line as a curiosity, and five minutes' 

 after he strikes a fish, and something goes, and when he looks, it is the 

 hook, so that while the hook last time was strong enough to break the 

 gut, the gut this time is strong enough to break the hook. 



"E/um things happen in fishing," soliloquised Crayon, as he put on 

 another fly. 



We did not do A great deal more here, for evening fisliing is not the 

 strong point of our river. As we walk up the long still millhead, on 

 which the shadows from the trees are falHng, not many fish are rising ; 

 at one sharp bend, however, I saw one good fish keep on rising, so I 

 stopped and bullied him. Once or twice he came and looked at the fly, 

 but he wouldn't have it ; but, as he kept on rising I knew that it was 

 a chance if he did not make a mistake, so I kept on too. 

 " He makes a very small rise," quoth E. 



" It is anything but a very small fish, though," said I ; " take my word 

 for it, if I get hold of him, he will show you some sport, and the next 

 moment, when I covered him for the sixtieth time (about), there was a 

 * Fact. This happened as described, and I have seen it done more than once. 



