16 THE DRY FLY AND FAST WATER 



to even theorise as to whether or not the failure 

 to spawn was due to weather conditions pre- 

 vailing at that time. Let us hope, assuming 

 that my informant was not mistaken, that the 

 curious condition observed by him was confined 

 to the stretch of the stream that he investigated. 

 Let us hope, further, that the fish, even in that 

 stream, will not become addicted to such an 

 ungenerous and unnatural habit. 



Great numbers of trout must be destroyed in 

 the periodical freshets that carry masses of ice 

 tearing and grinding over the beds of the moun- 

 tain streams. When the ice breaks up gradually 

 there is very little danger to the fish; but a 

 sudden and continued thaw, accompanied by a 

 steady fall of warm rain, washes the snow from 

 the hillsides, swells the streams into wild tor- 

 rents, and rips the very bottom out of them. 

 Any one who has witnessed the forming of an 

 ice-jam and its final breaking must marvel at 

 the possibility of any fish or other living thing 

 in its path escaping destruction, so tremendous 

 is the upheaval. A few years ago a jam and 

 freshet on the Brodhead, besides uprooting 

 great trees along the banks, lifted three iron 

 bridges within as many miles from their stone 

 abutments and carried each of them a hundred 



