98 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 



turned the scale at 2| Ib. Ten or a dozen more 

 had been returned to the water, as I did not 

 consider them large enough to keep. 



Upon getting back to the house, my friends 

 told me that the fishing which they rented 

 extended down, and not up, the river, and that 

 this pretty pool was not comprised in their 

 water ; so after luncheon I began to fish down 

 stream. The Argen ran through meadows over 

 a bed principally composed of white pebbles, 

 mixed here and there with marl and sand. It 

 was, piscatorially, indeed a charming bit of 

 water. Here it ran lightly over shallows, and 

 there it inclined with circling eddies under a 

 bank shaded with alder - bushes. Again it 

 would make a sudden curve, and rush over a 

 bank of gravel into a deep pool ; and then it 

 grew calm and widened, till again the ripple 

 showed where was the shallow barrier from the 

 next deep water. The only fault to be found 

 with this stream was, that in many places it 

 was guarded on both sides by the thick alder- 

 bushes, backed by young firs, so that from time 

 to time it was absolutely impossible to cast 

 with safety without wading to the depth of a 

 foot or two. I very soon found that the fishing 



