ROD IN WALES 23 



trout (and they seldom run larger in such 

 streams) taxes the skill of the most ex- 

 perienced. The fish takes the fly slyly, 

 there being scarcely a ripple on the sur- 

 face as he sucks it down ; but the mo- 

 ment he feels himself held, the line hisses 

 through the water as he darts from bank 

 to bank. Any moment he may free him- 

 self by turning round a stone, rushing 

 through the roots of an alder or under 

 a floating log. He fights for liberty with 

 an astonishing tenacity and endurance, 

 and not unfrequently breaks away 

 down-stream, leaping the little cascades 

 and displaying his gold and silvery sides 

 as he is buffeted about in the broken 

 water. It is then that the slender hair 

 cast will be tried; it is then that the skill 

 of the angler will be proved. 



I had left Amos far behind, and was 

 fishing a long narrow pool that can only 

 be approached by the angler standing 

 astride the small but heavy fall at its 



