34 HAUNTS OF TROUT. 



and tails of swift currents, or scours (called in the 

 west of England stickles), little turns and eddies, 

 where insects are carried by the stream, and many 

 other places, a knowledge of which is indispens- 

 able to successful practice. Indeed, it is a fact 

 which we would earnestly impress upon the as- 

 pirant to piscatorial renown, that to know where 

 to cast the flies is nearly as important as to know 

 how to cast them. A person ignorant of the 

 former would have almost as little chance of suc- 

 cess as if he were unable to perform the latter. 

 It is true that in early spring, when food is scarce 

 and the fish are obliged to depart in some measure 

 from their usual stationary habits, in order to pro- 

 cure a meal, his random-thrown flies may some- 

 times fall in the way of " a passing inhabitant of 

 the liquid element ; " but when, as the season ad- 

 vances, this necessity for roving is at an end 

 when the fish obtain their prey with no other 

 trouble than that of seizing it occupying parti- 

 cular feeding-places, and taking at pleasure the 

 food within their ken in this case, he who 

 would ensnare 



" The monarch of the brook" 



must not expect that " monarch" to leave his 

 dining room and rush headlong after " the trea- 



