MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS 249 



were so small that one of four ounces was con- 

 sidered a good one, whilst the very largest ran to 

 six ounces. These larger trout taught me a second 

 lesson self-restraint. The first lesson was, as 

 has been said, to learn to refrain from looking 

 into the water before I fished it : all the trout of 

 every size combined to teach this. The second 

 difficulty was to restrain the excitement when I 

 had a bite. The natural impulse then was to 

 strike so hard as to hurl the fish into the air 

 overhead : this answered very well with trout of 

 two or three ounces, though once a small one 

 came unfastened in the air, flew off at a tangent 

 into the hay behind, and could not be found. 

 But with six ounce trout this violent method did 

 not answer so well ; neither the angler, nor the 

 rod, nor the tackle, was always strcmg enough 

 to deal with them so summarily. Catastrophes 

 occurred, and by slow degrees and painful losses 

 I learnt the necessity of getting keenness under 

 control. After I had improved in these matters 

 there still remained the hardest trial of all, which 

 has to be undergone by all anglers, namely, how 

 to face the disappointment of losing a fish. 

 Many of us must have known what it is in 



