CHAPTER VI. 



OUT OF THE CHALK. 



HE Wandle and the Darent both rise in the chalk 

 downs on the border land of Surrey and Kent : the 

 former to run its short course of ten miles to the 

 Thames at War;dsworth, the latter to run much in the same 

 fashion through Kent to the Thames at Dartford. Both are 

 trout streams of fair quality ; both are most difficult to fish ; 

 more difficult, perhaps, than the limpid Itchen, of whose 

 tantalizing eccentricities in the matter of fish I have feelingly 

 written in another chapter. 



The Wandle has probably excited more hopes and caused 

 more disappointments in the heart of the angler than any 

 other stream that could be mentioned. Standing upon any 

 of the bridges that overlook the private grounds at 

 Carshalton and Mitcham, large fish may be discerned by the 

 score. They make no effort to conceal themselves for more 

 than a moment at a time; and if, through some bolder 

 attempt than usual to scare them from the clean-bedded 

 runlet which they have selected for the poising of their 

 plump bodies and the graceful waving of their orange fins, 



