A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 9 1 



course was completed. Delicate handling, under 

 the circumstances, was needful ; but after a 

 little patience, an excellent trout was placed 

 among the daisies and buttercups, which brought 

 the scale down to the pound mark. He was 

 the best and the last trout I took from the Iton. 

 When the contents of the basket were counted, 

 nine trout were placed side by side one a 

 pound, four half-pounders, and two under a 

 quarter of a pound. This was a very pleasant 

 morning's sport for the two hours we were at 

 work. The fly which took every fish was a 

 moderate - sized February red, or rather one 

 with a roughish claret body ; while the March 

 brown was quite out of favour. The two fisher- 

 men with whom I had a talk on the previous 

 day assured me that larger flies were better, 

 and that mine were too small. This I doubt, 

 for the morning's fishing clearly proved that 

 the trout of the Iton took a moderate-sized 

 English fly very readily. As a matter of fact, 

 the French fishermen do not understand much 

 about artificial flies. I bought a native-dressed 

 fly, the Papillonjaspt, au soleil, a clumsy thing, 

 with big wings of a cock's wing, and a large red 

 body, which I have kept as a curiosity. The 



