tlie giayling could be seen tkree feet below, a fish would 

 shoot up ^\'itlL a rush, seize the fly, and drop backwards to 

 the bottom. 



At the end of a very enjoyable holiday I broke my 

 homeward journey at Derby, intending only to spend the 

 night there. 



We were enjoying a post-prandial cigar in the smoking- 

 room of the Midland Hotel, and amongst the company were 

 two local anglers, who spoke in glowing terms of the 

 resources of the river Trent. I expressed some incredulity 

 about the salmon fishing in a river so polluted as the Trent, 

 and these two gentlemen made a dead set at me to come 

 with them on the morrow and give the river a trial. In 

 vain I pleaded that the tackle with me was limited to the 

 outfit of a dry-fiy trout fisherman. They would take no 

 denial, and so I yielded to their importunities and agreed to 

 join them. They fitted me up with a 15 ft. double-handed, 

 whippy trout i-od and a Nottingham reel, with 200 yards of 

 twisted flax, about the same thickness as a fine trout line ! 

 Of all the unmanageable thinjrs in the hands of an in- 

 experienced person, commend me to a Nottingham reel ! 

 My experiences with these erratic machines had been very 

 limited, and I loved not the rig-out thus generously lent me ; 

 but I was in for it, and therefore made the best of the 

 situation. Within a short railway ride of Derby we got 

 fishing tickets at a quaint little village hostelry, and paid 

 for these permits one shilling each. My shillingsworth 

 w^as signed " William Cooper," and it gave me the right to 

 fish " Mr. Smith's and Mr. Vicker's Avater," and it also 

 informed me, in a footnote, that " Parties breaking fences, 

 or leaving gates open, will be discliarged." I do not pur- 

 posely omit the name of the village where these permits 

 were issued — ^in fact I forget it. Across a couple of fields, 

 and we found ourselves upon the banks of the beery Trent, 

 and along the said banks were disposed at intervals some 

 fifteen anglers — worming for salmon. Within sight, up 

 stream, were some of the big breweries whose refuse pollutes 

 this stream, and sends it down discoloured and frothy, sug- 

 gestive of "half-and-half." The Trent at this point was 



