WEIR-POOLS 237 



Being come to the weir-pool, does one get sport ? 

 Here I confess I am minded to answer cautiously, 

 after the fashion of those beyond the border. Such 

 a statement as " whiles " about expresses the facts. If 

 the fish are not feeding elsewhere there is not likely to 

 be great slaughter at the weir-pool ; conversely, if there 

 is great slaughter at the weir-pool, a small sum might 

 be safely wagered that they are feeding with con- 

 siderable heartiness in other places, which would seem 

 to destroy the foundations of one's faith in the foam, 

 turmoil, eddies, and all the rest of it. But the cautious 

 answer does not, after all, quite cover the question, 

 because it takes no account of the occasional fish, of 

 which, my experience has been, the normal weir-pool 

 is more generous than the normal open reach. I 

 believe one can generally get some proof of the 

 existence of fish in a weir-pool in the shape of bites or 

 what not, even though elsewhere no signs have been 

 vouchsafed. 



I remember once exploring a little brook, narrow, 

 sluggish, and sinuous, which had the reputation of 

 holding quite large trout. It was somewhat heavily 

 bushed, and possessed some likely pools and corners, 

 into most of which I insinuated a March brown in 

 the orthodox wet-fly manner. But never a fish did 

 I move or even see, except one small one that fled off 

 a bit of gravelly shallow, and I began to think that the 

 brook's reputation was fallacious, and my informant 

 something worse. At last, however, I came to a mill, 

 no longer worked, but still dividing the stream into 

 two channels. One of these began with a six-foot fall, 

 over which a mere trickle of water splashed on to a 



