1 8 By Stream and Sea. 



to all intents finished paper, though rollers and cylinders 

 remained for drying and calendering. 



The paper-mill trout, it was evident even to the foreman, 

 could be kept waiting no longer. It was but a short length 

 of water at one's disposal, for the Chess is most rigorously 

 preserved, and the boundary fence of the Sarratt Mill land 

 was not more than two hundred yards off. The fish refused 

 to respond to any manner of temptation. Long line, short 

 line ; wet fly, dry fly ; fine cast, coarse cast ; flies dark and 

 light, large and small, shared the same uniform fate. In 

 such case there is nothing lost by suspending operations 

 and making a few quiet observations. In other words, 

 spike your rod, lie down on the grass (if it be not too damp), 

 and watch. So I advised myself, and so I did. 



When everything was quiet the fish began to move about, 

 evidently returning from the deeps into which they had 

 been scared to the banks under which they had been 

 originally lying. They arrived singly, and with no little 

 commotion took up each its favourite position. Giving 

 them leisure to settle down into confidence, I made ready, 

 and having previously marked the particular bunch of grass 

 near which the fish lay, dropped the fly upon it, whence it 

 tumbled gently into the edge of the water. A suck from 

 the trout, a delicate but firm jerk from the fisherman, and 

 the mischief was accomplished. The fish leaped clean out 

 of the water, and frightened numbers of which I had had no 

 previous suspicion away from the margin. But he was well 

 hooked, and all his plucky fighting could not save him. In 

 about an hour quietness again reigned supreme, and a 

 second trout was deluded into the fancy that my hare's ear 

 was a dainty morsel accidentally falling in his way. It was 

 a modest bit of sport, but it fitted well into a long day 



