100 



limit of live brace. It was not a difficult matter, for there 

 were plenty of them, and it was only a question of size. 

 ■The sun was dropping- Ixdiind the hill, in the golden west, 

 and the lengthening- shadows frcnn overhanging- trees put 

 the river in shade ; but the rise of May-fly was nearly over. 

 We completed our number of fish, and made our way back 

 to the nearest station with as handsome a basket of trout as 

 any honest angler could desire, tired, contented, and at 

 peace with all mankind. 



The long drought has shrunk our little Kentish river 

 Darenth, to its lowest summer level, and the trout fisher- 

 men have fared very badly for some weelcs past. There are 

 still a few scattered May-fly about — Yellow Sally's, and 

 Undertakers — but the trout have not taken them for the 

 past two or three weeks. As a matter of fact, the May-fly 

 lias this season been an utter fraud — the trout cared little 

 •or nothing for these tempting insects. Instead of getting 

 baskets of 201bs. weight, I have had to be content with a 

 couple of brace, on the best lengths of the river — as the 

 result of a long day's fishing. Only one red-letter day, 

 during the May-fly season, has redeemed the miserable 

 iailure of this miserable fisherman's carnival. I had fished 

 for eight mortal hours — with only half an hour's break for 

 lunch- — and I had used every pattern of May-fly known to 

 the craft. It was blazing hot; there was a sky of copper 

 and a river of brass ; and not a breath of air ruffled the 

 glassy surface of the stream. This was the fourteenth 

 consecutive day's May-fly fishing and there was but one 

 miserable three-quarter pounder in the bag, as the result of 

 eight hours' incessant casting. Mentally discussing the 

 matter, I called myself an ass, a monomaniac, and a few 

 other polite things for wasting all these days, and working 

 so hard, by the river side to such sm-all purpose. Finally, I 

 -came to the conclusion that fly-fishing was a harmless form 

 of insanity, and that I was really to be pitied, and ought 

 not to be blamed, for my folly. And then I sat me dcnvn, 

 in the grateful shade of a grand old tree, and went to sleep. 

 To wake up refreshed, and find the sun dipping the range of 



