IN PURSUIT OF THE MAY FLY 99 



arches a trout was rising on the far side of the 

 stream close up against a stone wall, and just be- 

 hind a tuft of segs a foot high a most difficult 

 place for a long cast, for I had an alder above me, 

 an apple-tree behind me, and the railway and 

 signal-wire close against and above me; but I 

 wanted that trout. I made several ineffectual casts ; 

 at last I got my G.O.M. neatly over that tuft of 

 segs, I hooked him, and now comes the tug-of- 

 war. How surprised he was ; how he leaped out of 

 the water, dashed under the railway arch, up-stream 

 into a bank of weeds, down again, and at last got 

 fixed in some debris of sticks round the buttress of 

 the arch, and there for a long time he kept my rod 

 bent double, for I dared not give him any play, the 

 stream under the arch being strong. At last he 

 comes out, and to my surprise he came gently into 

 the net without any further display of the vigour 

 with which he started. Happily, it chanced that 

 though Master Izaac was absent the Professor was 

 there, looking on and giving me, as he always does, 

 the most friendly advice. 



"Mind your rod," cries he, "he'll break it." 

 " Give him a little play ! hold on ! don't let him get 

 under the arch ; keep him out of the weeds ; here 

 he comes ! " He landed him nicely for me, and 

 then we found out why he came in so tamely at last. 

 He had managed to wind the gut two or three 

 times round his body, and was, in fact, bound 

 "hand and foot." 



I was rather proud of that trout, for I had caught 



