FISHING. 43- 



stream, they seem afraid it may escape, make a 

 rush, and in their hurry to seize very frequently 

 miss it altogether. It is very different fishing up 

 stream ; the trout see the fly coming towards them, 

 rise to meet it and seize it, without any clash, but 

 in a firm deadly manner. Another advantage of 

 this mode of fishing is that it does not disturb the 

 water so much. Let us suppose the angler is fishing 

 down a fine pool. He of course commences at the 

 top, the place where the best trout and those in- 

 clined to feed invariably lie. A fter a few casts he 

 hooks one, which immediately runs down - and by 

 its leaping in the air and plunging in all direc- 

 tions alarms all its neighbours, and it is ten to one 

 he gets another rise in that pool. Fishing up 

 saves all this. The fisher begins at the foot, and 

 when he hooks a trout pulls it down, and the re- 

 maining portions of the pool are undisturbed. 



From about the latter end of May to the be- 

 ginning of August is the worst part of the whole 

 season for fly-fishing in large livers ; in the hill 

 streams however it is different, as there the trout 

 never seem to tire of anything in the shape of 

 surface food, as I have been informed by Mr. 

 William Douglas, gamekeeper to his Grace the 

 Duke of Northumberland, that he has frequently 

 seen the trout eagerly rising at and seizing the 

 feathers that fell from the hawks which he shot 



