94 IN PURSUIT OF THE MAY FLY - - 



to the river; not they. Geese in these parts are 

 as big as swans in other parts. Master Gander 

 spreads abroad his great wings six feet from tip 

 to tip and his fat wives do the same, and off they 

 go, like a rushing mighty wind, filling the air with 

 clanging and clamour, over the houses, over the 

 trees, over the church, away up over the steeple, 

 till down they come with one great swoop on to 

 the middle of the river, causing a commotion com- 

 pared with which a penny steamer at full speed 

 suddenly blown up in the middle of the Thames 

 would have been as nothing. 



I started in pursuit of the May Fly on June i, 

 but I was too sanguine. For two or three days my 

 waiting and watching, clad in wintry apparel, was 

 all in vain ; a biting north-easterly gale was blow- 

 ing ; occasional scudding sleet came driving up 

 the river ; what May Fly in his senses would think 

 of leaving his warm bed down in the mud to come 

 up and flutter away his brief life in such wintry 

 weather as this ? It was not to be expected ; but I 

 was there, I had travelled one hundred and fifty 

 miles with no other object than to discover the May 

 Fly, and so I waited, and watched, and wandered 

 by that bleak river-side, till at last my Job-like 

 patience seemed as if it was going to be rewarded. 



I saw a solitary May Fly fluttering on the surface 

 of the water, and presently a trout, wondering what 

 the insect was, came up ; there was a flop, the water 

 moved round and round in widening circles, and 

 the misguided insect was no longer to be seen. 



