THE RISE. 71 



rapidly disappeared. I tried it, however, for some time longer, 

 but eventually I replaced my Grannom, and caught several 

 other trout before going home. 



Before putting on the Grannom, however, I examined 

 the food in the latest caught fish, and found that the upper 

 part of its gullet contained a great number of nymphae or 

 pupae of the Iron Blue in their most advanced stage, several 

 specimens having their wings already unfolded. 



I am inclined, therefore, to think that, owing to some 

 altered condition of the water or atmosphere, the pupae of 

 the Ephemeridae, moved by one of those mysterious impulses 

 which occasionally agitate the insect world, had risen to 

 the surface to assume their sub-imago existence, and that 

 this general movement was followed by the excitement of 

 the fly feeding fish. 



Since that occasion I have corroborated my then formed 

 theory by examining the food of the fish caught during 

 the rise, and have found, as a rule, far greater numbers 

 of the pupae than the sub-imago of the existing hatch. 

 I have also noticed the trout, during a rise, taking the 

 pupae below the surface, and seen the trout following 

 pupae up, and taking them just as they reached the surface 

 of the water. 



I do not claim that this suggestion will account for all 

 the general rises peculiar to trout, but I think that in 

 many cases it will be eventually proved to arise from 

 some initial movement of the pupae towards their next 



