THE SECRET OF THE CANAL 255 



growing doubt whether the fish did not hasten to 

 leave the canal whenever the locks were opened to 

 give entrance or exit to a barge. 



At last I practically gave up the idea of catching 

 one, and should have had no story to tell but for a 

 lucky accident. One morning during what was sup- 

 posed to be the Mayfly season Arctic weather was 

 making it a thing of naught I made my way in rain 

 and wind along the canal to the river, in the fond hope 

 of seeing a few Mayflies and a rising trout. As I went 

 I suddenly saw a trout in the canal. It was in a 

 deepish pool clear of weeds right out in the middle, 

 but not very far from the sill of a small overflow weir, 

 which serves to carry surplus water from the canal, 

 when it is very full, under a light towing-bridge to 

 the river on the other side of a meadow. When 

 the canal is full it causes a very slight stream above 

 this weir, and no doubt the fish seen was there to take 

 advantage of it. 



I could not get him to look at anything then, but 

 after a blank day by the river and a consolatory cup of 

 tea, I attached a gold-bodied grilse fly to the end of a 

 Mayfly cast, and came back to the canal. Several likely- 

 looking spots, still ruffled by a brisk but diminishing 

 wind, were fished carefully over without sign of a fish, 

 and at last, about 7 p.m., the haunt of the trout was 

 reached. But the whole pool, some thirty yards in 

 length, was covered without result, and it looked as 

 though the fish was sulky or else had moved elsewhither. 

 But whither would he have been likely to go ? One 

 part of a canal is much like another, and this was more 

 favourable as a feeding-ground than most. Only one 



