14 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 



scraped along the bottom, and round stones 

 and into holes. Soon he had a nice grayling, 

 and then, to my horror, a fine trout became a 

 victim a beautiful fish, which one longed to 

 have at the end of the line. But I was almost 

 glad he took no more while I remained with 

 him not very long, however, for it began to 

 grow dark, and visions of broiled grayling for 

 supper, and an appetite excited by mountain 

 air, made a return to the inn necessary. 



Next morning a cloudless blue sky greeted me 

 on rising, but I was soon off to the head of the 

 Mitter See, half an hour's walk beneath some 

 rugged mountains, which surround the lakes 

 on all sides. It was a likely place for grayling, 

 as a stream entered here, and there were plenty 

 of gravel banks, but there was no wind, and 

 the sun at nine o'clock was very hot; so I 

 turned to the main river, the very first part of 

 the Adige as it flows between the Mitter and 

 Eeschen Sees. To my delight, after all the 

 torrents I had lately seen, it proved to be a 

 narrow but bright clear stream, with a gravel 

 bottom, large clumps of weeds, and some splen- 

 did pools, high banks flowing through meadow- 

 land, in which herds of pretty fawn-coloured 



