170 THE DRY FLY AND FAST WATER 



tree may have prevented a proper presentation, 

 though I think a great number of times it ap- 

 proached the fish admirably. Whatever the 

 reason may have been, I did not raise him that 

 day. 



Perhaps the actions of another fish that I 

 watched feeding steadily for over an hour may, 

 while hardly offering a solution of the difficulty, 

 present some basis for conjecture. A gentleman 

 who had observed him feeding the day before 

 called my attention to the fact that a good trout 

 occupied a little pocket about one hundred 

 yards above the big fish which has given me so 

 much sport, and he led me mysteriously away 

 from the inn, and as mysteriously up the road, 

 until we reached the spot where the fish was, 

 when he asked me to look in the little eddy and 

 tell him what I saw. For a moment or two I 

 could see nothing but a little drift stuff, but 

 very shortly a good-sized snout broke the sur- 

 face, and a large bubble floated where it had ap- 

 peared. While we spent ten or fifteen minutes 

 watching the fish rise, I laid plans to get him 

 the next day. In the morning I thought better 

 of it, however, and planned to crawl down to 

 the water's edge and study his actions at close 

 range. In clambering down the steep bank I 



