238 AN OPEN CREEL 



large flat stone, and so into a little pool, perhaps twenty 

 feet long and fifteen feet wide. The water was not 

 more than three feet deep at the most, and the bottom 

 was covered practically everywhere with a dense growth 

 of silkweed, which showed how little stream had passed 

 through that summer. Still, such as it was, the place 

 was a weir-pool, and caused hope to revive slightly. 

 The best spot was, of course, where the trickle came 

 over the stone, and made a slight disturbance in the 

 pool ; and there, sure enough, a good fish rose as soon 

 as the fly fell. After a brisk fight, complicated by 

 silkweed, it came to the net, and proved to be nearly 

 two pounds. The pool also yielded a small trout of a 

 few ounces, which was returned, and, after an interval 

 of rest, a third of over a pound, thus making some- 

 thing like a good day out of what had seemed a certain 

 blank. 



At the time I thought it probable that there were 

 hardly any trout in the other parts of the brook, and 

 that the few survivors of rustic attack had taken up 

 their quarters in the most favoured spots, such as the 

 weir-pools and mill-pounds a thing I had noticed in 

 another very similar brook ; but on subsequent visits 

 I found that there was a fair head of fish after all, 

 catching a few and seeing others. Therefore I am 

 inclined to ascribe the success to the merits of the 

 weir-pool as such. And other instances of a similar 

 kind might be adduced, as, for instance, a nice little 

 dish of quarter-pound trout taken during a time of 

 great dearth in Wales, when the main river was 

 yielding practically nothing. But an insignificant 

 tributary burn was found with several little falls at 



