126 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



nymphse and subimago flies, and the water there 

 was less turbid ; indeed during the men's dinner 

 hour it cleared. By two o'clock two trout, 

 weighing 21b. loz. and lib. 6oz., were tempted to 

 their fate by my red quill fly, and another soon 

 after, 1-^lb. In the evening, after sunset, two more 

 were killed, lib. 7oz. and lib. 9oz. 



On the 27th, five were drawn to net, and weighed 

 l>y steelyard as soon as landed, and, in the order of 

 capture, lib. 14oz., lib. 7oz., lib. 2oz., lib. 9oz., 

 and lib. 5oz. As the shadows made by the 

 declining sun were lengthening, swallows were 

 congregating high in the air, looking like mere 

 specks, and also many were swooping over the 

 smooth river, snatching with unerring sight from 

 its surface midges and black gnats ; and yet not so 

 later on at dusk, for a house-martin seized my 

 artificial fly as it was being whirled in the air in 

 the act of casting, and was fast hooked at the point 

 of the beak, wildly fluttering in alarm until wound 

 in to the top ring of the rod, there very tenderly 

 handled, caressed, and released not much pained 

 or damaged. 



On the 29th, after a stormy night, when a great 

 number of eels were caught in the large iron grating 

 trap at Durngate Mill, through which the main 

 stream can be strained a deadly device I made 

 no attempt to fish until after luncheon, when in no 



