ON LAKES 107 



expect the trout to come at flies. When the wind 

 has fallen, however, and the water is calm, you will, 

 in summer, if the other atmospherical conditions are 

 favourable, see, from the marks, that fish are rising 

 all over the lake. Where were the fish when the 

 winds were out ? There are two possibilities. It may 

 be that fish were then, as now, all over the lake, in the 

 deeps as well as in the shallows, but that, for some 

 reason not yet discovered, those in the deeps do not 

 rise when the water is rough. It may be, on the 

 other hand, that the fish spread out all over the lake 

 only when the weather is dead calm or nearly so. 

 A friend who habitually lives by the side of a fine 

 lake advances this view. He says that the trout, 

 usually gathered in the shallows all round the water, 

 go out hunting the flies in times of calm, and he 

 explains the lack of sport far from the land at 

 other times by the simple belief that the fish are 

 not then there. This understanding does not seem 

 sufficient. If trout follow the flies as trade follows 

 the flag, it is in time of wind that we should find 

 them far out on the lake. Most of the flies are 

 aquatic, born either in the comparatively shallow 

 parts of the lake, most of which are along the shores, 

 or in the tributary streams. Unless they wander 

 when the atmosphere is calm, it must be when there 

 is wind that they go forth upon the water. I do not 

 think they wander. I think that when out on the 

 deeps they have been blown thither. This thought 

 seems to be justified by the fact that very soon after 

 putting off from the shore you are quit of that 



