THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



123 



over a pound each. Then they cease biting, and 

 after trying in vain for some time, we look round 

 to ascertain the cause. The eastern sky has grown 

 pale and cold, and there is a thin line of dark, 

 hard-edged cloud resting athwart it. We also 

 become sensible of a keenness in the air, and we 

 find that the wind has gone round to the east. 

 The ripples already shimmering on the water tell 

 us that a strong easterly wind is springing up, and 

 so goodbye to our fishing. 



We wander downward, just throwing in now and 

 then for form's sake, and note the few things the 

 autumn winds and rains have left us. Here is a 

 late tuft of the yellow loosestrife ; there the green 

 blossoms of the ivy, which wreaths round that 

 slanting pollard. Yonder a bed of tall nettles, 

 covered with the fading yellow of the parasitic 

 dodder, and here the greenish spikes of the mercury 

 goose-foot, or Good King Henry. On this marsh, 

 the tall bulrushes bend their rich brown heads to 

 the easterly air, and in this small, rush-fringed 

 lagoon the floating duckweed is scattered by the 

 rising of a mallard. 



On this mud-bank is the seal of an otter, and the 

 track of his broad foot, together with the tail part 

 of an eel off which he has breakfasted. Across the 

 river a water-rat swims under the water, its com- 

 pressed fur gleaming with silvery air-bubbles, and 

 the ubiquitous water-hen flutters from the sedges. 



All around are the glowing reds, and browns, 



