134 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



On September 2nd the fully expected and ardently 

 longed-for repetition of the above sport was greatly 

 interfered with by horses drawing carts, vans, &c., 

 passing through the ford, and as it was Saturday 

 night, the drivers sometimes stopped midway to 

 refresh their horses, wash wheels, &c. At another 

 time a boy was on the back of a tired horse that had 

 done his week's work and was made to stand awhile 

 in the ford for the benefit of his legs, and now and 

 again the boy, evidently delighted to be riding, 

 would take a turn from shore to shore, and once he 

 began to splash up stream until I remonstrated. 

 And twice a lumbering watering-cart was slowly 

 filled from a bucket dipped into the river. With 

 all these interruptions one's patience was much tried, 

 as I had no chance of fishing until about 7.30. p.m. 

 I should have gone elsewhere had I not noticed 

 that within a few minutes after each disturbance 

 had temporarily ceased a shoal of about a dozen 

 grayling came on to the churned -up gravelly 

 bottom to feed, probably on crushed or crawling 

 larvae, snails, &c. I resolved, therefore, to bide my 

 time, and when all was quiet again fish began to 

 rise, freely taking Trichoptera as they touched or 

 floated on the surface of the smooth stream, and at 

 intervals my counterfeit fly, each time with fatal 

 effect, for when I left off a leash of beautiful 11 in. to 

 13in. grayling, as bright as silver, lay on the 



