252 FLY FISHING 



taking. One little favourite pool after another 

 produced nothing, and a fear of something un- 

 known came over me ; the gloom and stillness 

 of the wood made me uneasy, everything about 

 me seemed to know something, to have a mean- 

 ing, which was hidden from me ; and I felt as if 

 my fishing was out of place. At last I could 

 resist the feeling of apprehension no longer; I 

 left the rod with the line in a pool to fish for 

 itself, and went up to the edge of the wood to 

 see what was happening in the open world out- 

 side. There was a great storm coming up full 

 of awful menace, as thunderclouds often are. It 

 filled me with terror. I hurried back for my 

 rod, left the burn and the wood, and fled before 

 the storm, going slow to get breath now and 

 then, and continually urged to running again by 

 the sound of thunder behind me. 



Burn trout are wayward little things. Some- 

 times they take a worm greedily on the brightest 

 days in low clear water, rushing to it directly it 

 falls into the pool, or seizing it as it travels 

 down the stream, and being hooked without 

 trouble. On these days all the angler need do is 

 to wait for four or five seconds after he knows, 



