122 FISHERMEN'S WEATHER 



trout and grayling take the fly at once. 

 In some streams, too, there are, owing to 

 the currents, patches of clear water out- 

 side the discoloured area, where fish may 

 be caught. " I have," writes Colonel 

 Davies-Cooke, in allusion to this con- 

 dition, " known about half of a stream as 

 thick as soup, the rest scarcely coloured." 

 Fatal yellow One of the worst forms of discoloration 



flood. 



by a spate is that yellow flood, fortu- 

 nately rare in dry-fly streams, but only too 

 familiar in some parts of the country. 

 General CVCallaghan remembers two occa- 

 sions on which the dreaded apparition of 

 this yellow stain drove him from water 

 otherwise in perfect order. Neither time 

 did he receive any warning of the impend- 

 ing change, for the rain that was the cause 

 of it had fallen far away in the hills and 

 not in the low country where he was 

 fishing. 



Moss-water " The moss-water from the hills," writes 

 l Colonel M'Inroy, "seems to make the 

 fish sulky when the water is thereby 

 rendered thick, but when it settles, and 



