THE WAYS OF A TROUT 



189 



parts of the pool are usually a public feeding-ground, where 

 the large fish feed when they wish and the smaller fish when 

 they dare. At times, when the smaller trout are actively 

 feeding, we may be sure that the monarchs of the pool are 

 lying torpid. Only in the height of the mad rises after May- 

 fly, or some other favourite fly, are all the trout in the river 

 seen rising together, and then the sight is a wonderful one. 

 The whole stream heaves and boils ; and suddenly we dis- 

 cover what an unsuspectedly large population of trout 



THE LODDON 



the stream really contains, though for weeks only a few 

 may have been seen rising. This frenzied activity often lasts 

 only for two or three minutes, while the swarm of newly- 

 hatched fly floats down the stream. The calm of the stream 

 returns, and the revelation of the life within it seems almost 

 a dream. On hot summer evenings the trout sometimes rise 

 with almost equal activity after sunset, and for a longer time. 

 Often there seem to be no fly to excite them, but close 

 investigation shows a swarm of minute black midges. The 

 trout are rising at these black specks in a manner detested by 

 the fisherman, who has no artificial fly small enough to 

 counterfeit this minute insect. This rising at black midges 



