186 Dry -Fly Fishing. 



a trout to rise again, already a minute before 

 seen to suck in a dun, and yet let the next one that 

 floated down pass by. 



What may be the prospects of sport elsewhere it 

 would be presumptuous for me to say, but in those 

 reaches of the Itchen which have come under my 

 notice in daily walks during March I can confidently 

 give my opinion that thus early the river was never 

 in better order. It was clear, smooth, save when 

 occasionally kissed into glittering ripples by a 

 passing zephyr, sunlighted, and reflecting the 

 cloudless blue of space. Moreover, minute pale 

 midges were in the air in small, mazy-dancing 

 groups, or circling close around one's head, while at 

 long intervals a pseudo-imago with a yellow-ringed 

 olive-green body emerged to the surface, and made 

 repeated efforts to dry its rather long iron-blue 

 wings, and escape into its new element, and, having 

 avoided its piscine enemies and hawking birds, have 

 a chance of fulfilling its ephemeral existence. One 

 of these flies I managed to intercept on the rod 

 point and bring to hand for examination ; hence 

 this description. 



The first good rise of duns this year began between 

 12 and 3 p.m. on the 25th of March, when the 

 lengthening day was bright and summer-like, with 

 a temperature of 60, and so it has continued every 

 day since. Very different has the weather been from 



