ARMENTIERES. 195 



and runs a course of more than twenty miles before it 

 enters the Lys. 



The town of Merville is a place of some antiquity, and 

 has often experienced the miseries of war. Further down 

 the Lys you come to Estaires, a town of great antiquity, 

 the bridge of which is the Minariacum in the Itinerary of 

 Antoninus. Near to the town, at a small place called 

 Gorgue, the rivers Lawe and Loisne empty their waters 

 into the Lys ; the former takes its rise near St. Pol, and 

 runs a course of nearly twenty miles : the latter rises above 

 Cambrin, and is only about ten or fifteen miles long. 



On the left bank of the Lys, the angler will fall in 

 with the river Becque, and two or three smaller rivulets; 

 in all of which trout may be found. The best flies for 

 May, June, and July, in all these tributary streams, are 

 the dark body with yellow wings, the vermilion palmer, 

 the dark body and the woodcock's wing, and the black 

 gnat. 



The minnow and the red-worm may be used on these 

 waters with good effect. The natives of the Lys, in the 

 months of May and June, when the May-fly is on the 

 water, dibble large cockchafers on the surface of the 

 larger holes, and very often catch immense trout. Enor- 

 mous chub, too, are often caught in the Lys. 



It may be as well to observe, that in all the waters 

 which are found to the left of an imaginary line drawn 

 through Arras and St. Omer, looking to the southward, 

 the trout begin to diminish and give place to pike, perch, 

 eels, roach, etc., etc. These can be obtained all over the 

 country, and generally attain a large size ; and therefore 

 this kind of fishing may be got to almost any extent. 

 The trout-fisher in the Pas de Calais should notice this 

 fact; otherwise he may expend his time and money in a 



