TROUT FISHING ON THE ANDEOSCOGAN. 23 



me like a skyrocket, preventing me from recovering the 

 slack. I feared that this run had effected his libera- 

 tion, but on getting reeled up, was agreeably surprised 

 to find that I still held him. Five minutes more 

 brought him on his side, when Collins neatly handled 

 his landing net, and I had the satisfaction of safely 

 securing a good four- and- a-half pounder. "Within an 

 hour and a half I had killed eleven fish, averaging 

 two and a quarter pounds, when suddenly they stopped 

 rising, and all my skill was wasted, foi 4 I could not 

 raise a fin. This striking peculiarity in both trout 

 and salmon fishing, which no fisherman can fail to 

 have observed, I am unable to account for. That all 

 the inhabitants of a portion of a stream should desist to 

 feed instantaneously, when a few minutes previously 

 they have been seizing with avidity your flies, is a 

 subject on which I should like to hear the opinion of 

 some competent authority. I remember asking an 

 old hand, whose success in his neighbourhood was a 

 household word, and his response was that a sudden 

 change in the atmosphere caused it. This answer 

 somewhat astonished me, nor could I reconcile myself 

 to the idea that fish which > in the majority of instances, 

 lie some distance beneath the surface of the water, 

 should be cognizant of an alteration which is impercep- 

 tible to us. From continued want of success; I changed 



