DRY-FLY PRELIMINARIES. 109 



the neighbourhood of one's lobworm lying, attached 

 to leger tackle, on the bottom in ten feet of water ; 

 whether a shoal of hungry fish was surrounding it, 

 discussing the order of precedence before beginning, 

 or whether, on the other hand, the worm and hook 

 were hopelessly buried in mud or weeds with 

 never a fish within range of them. In such a case 

 one is quite impotent to satisfy one's pardonable 

 curiosity, and many a time have I heard good 

 anglers utter a wish that just for a moment (no 

 longer) they could have the water removed from 

 some deep pool " just to see what fish there are 

 there." This feeling of helpless ignorance limits 

 one a good deal, and, though the unknown is 

 always magnificent, human nature at times likes to 

 dally with the known. Therefore a style of fishing 

 in which one knows for certain that there is a fish 

 to be caught has its obvious advantages. 



Theoretically one has this knowledge when 

 angling in the southern trout streams which are the 

 headquarters of the dry-fly art. Chief among them 

 are the Test, Itchen, Kennet, Hampshire Avon 

 in its upper reaches, Gloucestershire Coin, and 

 their tributaries. There are also a few in the 

 north and midlands, such as the Driffield Beck in 

 Yorkshire and Dove in Derbyshire. Most of these 

 rivers differ from the mountain streams, in that 



