SOME FANCIES SOME FACTS 183 



of man is afforded the fish, and, although the 

 actions of the angler (except in rare cases) do 

 not indicate the danger of actual personal en- 

 counter, the fish retires, precipitately or quietly, 

 according to the manner in which he is ap- 

 proached. It is this sight of man or his shadow, 

 and not the the ability to detect the fraud, that 

 impels him to refrain from taking the fly. If 

 the angler remain hidden from view, and throw 

 the fly properly, without the accompaniment of 

 shadows of himself, rod, line, or leader, and a 

 rise is not induced, he may safely assume that 

 it is lack of inclination on the part of the fish, 

 and not a contempt for the pattern of the fly, 

 bred of familiarity with it, that causes him to 

 refuse it. 



These facts, or fancies, as they may be con- 

 sidered, are presented only as they may sup- 

 port a theory that accounts for the wariness and 

 cunning of the trout of much fished streams, 

 and the apparent lack of these attributes in the 

 trout of the wilderness. It is a well known fact 

 that a man who wishes to take trout in Maine, 

 Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or, in fact, 

 anywhere in the north woods where they are 

 plentiful, need have had no previous experience 

 to enable him to catch all that the law, or his 



