FLY-FISHING IN THE RANG ELY REGION. 95 



We had stocked our pool and returned its denizens to 

 liberty many times, when we happened to remember a 

 pond fed by springs and discharging by exfiltration, 

 where minnows were abundant, but which contained no 

 trout. We determined to colonize it. Water transpor- 

 tation was available for the greater part of the distance, 

 but the last hundred yards was land carriage. Over this 

 John took the trout in a large tin pail, his broad felt hat 

 floating on the surface of the water it contained, to keep 

 them in ; for had their veins circulated quicksilver they 

 could not have been more lively. These fish ran from 

 two and a half to one and a quarter pounds ; and, as I 

 recollect, there were fifty of them. . Therefore consider- 

 able time was consumed in the portage. When the trout 

 were placed in their new home, they were so exhausted 

 by their struggles, as to be quite content merely to rest 

 and breathe. I watched them lying motionless at my 

 feet, in about a foot of water. Occasionally a leaf would 

 drift into the mouth of some one of them, borne by the 

 current of water circulating through its gills. It seemed 

 an instant before the presence of the intruding mat- 

 ter was realized, then it was shot out with sufficient 

 force to project it some inches through the water. 

 I use the word shot out advisedly, for no other con- 

 veys a just idea of the suddenness of the operation. I 

 then thought how very, very brief is the time in which 

 the angler must strike to a rise, if he hopes to save his 

 fish. 



June, and the last twenty days of September are the 



