CHAPTER XI 



" Tis night, dread night, and weary Nature lies 

 So fast as if she never were to rise ; 

 Lean wolves forget to howl at night's pale noon ; 

 No wakeful dogs bark at the silent moon, 

 Nor bay the ghosts which glide in horror by 

 To view the caverns where their bodies lie ; 

 The ravens perch, and no presages give, 

 Nor to the windows of the dying cleave ; 

 In vaults the walking fires extinguish'd lie ; 

 The stars, heaven's sentry, wink and seem to die." LEE. 



BEFORE I describe what is called " burn- 

 ing the water/' I will make an observation 

 that may be of service to the rod fisher. 

 It is, that salmon which have been dis- 

 turbed in the night with boats and lights will draw 

 into the streams above, and take the fly all the 

 better for this disturbance the following morning ; 

 and as burning always takes place when the water 

 is very low, they probably will not be found far from 

 the place of the nocturnal operations. 



Trout also will take better for having been routed 

 about, and for change of situation ; a remarkable 

 instance of which I witnessed a few years ago at 

 Castle Combe. A hole under some hatches by a mill 

 was emptied of its water, that the trout might be 

 caught and taken lower down the stream, more out 

 of the way of poachers. This was done by means of 

 buckets, and in doing it the water became thick and 



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