THE VALUE OF OBSERVATION 29 



they may lie, seems to develop in him a remark- 

 able keenness of vision. This is a direct re- 

 sult, perhaps, of the attention which he gives 

 to his fly. My own experience is that while I 

 am watching my fly float down-stream some 

 stone of irregular formation, peculiar colour, 

 or difference in size from others about it, lying 

 upon the bottom, arrests my eye, with the effect 

 of making the water appear shallower or clearer 

 than it really is. My fly appears to be the 

 centre of a small area upon the surface of the 

 water through which everything is seen as 

 clearly as through a water-glass, the shadow of 

 the fly itself upon the bottom often being plainly 

 discernible. Anglers who fish the dry fly learn 

 to identify the living shadow that appears sud- 

 denly under the fly as a trout ready to take it 

 on its next drift down-stream, and to recognise 

 a fish as it sidles out from the bank or swings 

 uncertainly toward the fly just as it passes the 

 boulder that shelters him. In either case an 

 interesting opportunity is afforded, particularly 

 for exercising a very necessary attribute self- 

 control. 



It may be that many happenings I now see 

 upon the stream passed unnoticed when I used 

 the wet fly because of some lack of concen- 



