62 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



fish were invariably found in the eye or tail of a mode- 

 rate stream, the rest on gravelly or sandy shelves where 

 the water was about 2 ft. deep. The former hooked 

 themselves, taking the fly fairly under water ; the latter 

 came direct to the surface, and demanded careful strik- 

 ing and playing. 



Picking my way through a copse where the banks 

 were high, I sat down on an overhanging rock to rest. 

 When the eye became accustomed to the water and its 

 buff bed it detected a couple of grayling that had before 

 escaped notice, so closely were they assimilated in 

 colour to the ground in which they foraged. Of course, 

 I had always accepted the teaching of my betters that 

 this fish rises perpendicularly from the bottom in deep 

 water after the fly, but I had never verified the state- 

 ment for myself. I did so now. By proceeding quietly 

 I could " dib " the fly over the fish. It darted straight 

 upwards, missed, and descended again. As it seemed 

 uneasy after the exercise I repeated the experiment, 

 with precisely similar results. The fish, agitating its 

 fins at the bottom, was evidently excited, perhaps 

 angry, and it behoved me to restore tranquillity, if pos- 

 sible, to its perturbed spirit. Instead, therefore, of 

 dibbing, I now allowed the fly to float, a little submerged, 

 from a couple of yards above the fish, which, I fear, 

 had never in its youthful days been taught the mystical 

 proverb, " First, second, but beware of the third." It 

 came up with a gallant charge, and went down soundly 

 hooked. 



There was no possibility of getting the landing net 

 to the water, and no opportunity of travelling the 

 grayling up or down stream to a convenient place. I 

 had to make the best of the position, and the best was 

 the employment of brute force. Hauling up a J-lb. 

 fish bodily a distance of several feet, when the said fish 



