172 ROD AND RIVER 



what is called the Shrubbery water. The season 

 was unusually forward, and there had been a suc- 

 cession of bright, hot days. At first the fly had 

 been on in fair force, and the fish had risen well 

 at it. On one afternoon it increased to such an 

 extent as to completely cover the surface of the 

 water, broad though the river is at that particular 

 stretch. I can only compare it to a thick mist 

 extending across the whole stream, and up and 

 down it as far as I could see. Strange to say, 

 the fish ceased to rise, nor did they again do so 

 for several days. I conclude they were glutted 

 with the fly. Since that time, now some six 

 or seven years ago, I have never witnessed a 

 similar occurrence, or anything at all approaching 

 it, save with what is known as the ' angler's curse,' 

 the smallest of the black gnats. About eleven 

 years ago, during a visit to Loch Leven, the boat- 

 men drew my attention to what they called the 

 ' smoke ' above the trees by Kinross House. On 

 my expressing my surprise and wonder as to 

 what it could be, the avenue being too far from 

 the house to warrant the supposition that it could 

 be smoke from the chimneys, they explained to 

 me that it was a dense cloud of flies of the midge 

 tribe. The column, which had precisely the ap- 

 pearance of smoke, must have been a quarter of 

 a mile in length. 



Like the March brown, the female grannom 



