BROOKS, POOLS, STILL-WATERS 47 



life is abundant about the pool, from brilliant butter- 

 flies to invisible midges. At times a kindergarten of 

 foolish minnows ventures into the sacred precincts; 

 scattered, with some lost and many wounded, they dart 

 away before the onslaught of the weighty residents. 

 Thus living at ease, with much good eating which 

 comes to them quite independently of effort on their 

 part, serene in the knowledge of their superior strength 

 and size, the brook trout of the still-waters wax ever 

 mightier and, from the angler's viewpoint, more de- 

 sirable. 



Dark-skinned fish, these, from long residence in 

 deep water well shaded, and in shape chunky and full- 

 bellied. Dignified and deliberate of mien are they and 

 of temperament highly suspicious, for the reward of 

 the easy life of the pool is won by those individuals 

 only who are best fitted to survive. Once they too 

 free-lanced in the riffles and rapids with others of 

 their kind, seeking daily sustenance at the risk of divers 

 sudden deaths. In time, however, they assumed for- 

 midable proportions and became themselves the lords 

 of the stream. To this distinction they arrived only 

 by exceptionally good fortune and unusual self -pro- 

 tective abilities. It would seem, then, that the angler 

 who would successfully match his skill against the 

 sagacity of these veterans must depend largely upon 

 strategy and the ability to suit tackle to occasion. 



In the riffles and rapids no extraordinary skill is 

 needed to lend life-like motion to the flies. Once the 

 cast is made and the flies have alighted upon the water 

 in the desired spot, they are caught by the eddies and 



