30 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



and slow, and strongly lined with barbed wire 

 and bushes, quite impenetrable. At the end of 

 this meadow I was met by a strong stream run- 

 ning into the river. Walking along the side for 

 some distance I found a crossing of stepping 

 stones; this brought me into another sweet little 

 meadow, in which, to my surprise and delight, I 

 actually found one or two open spaces where I 

 could cast freely. Here I caught a good fat 

 chub, quite a pound, and then a small trout: 

 the latter I put back alive, and the former I 

 killed and left conspicuously on the bank for 

 " hawks to peck at." 



Here I was waited upon by a keeper who 

 sprang up from somewhere about. He de- 

 manded, and I showed him, my credentials. I 

 thanked him for performing his duty so effi- 

 ciently, and in return he told me that the river 

 was periodically netted for coarse fish, such as 

 chub and pike, but that unless the netters were 

 closely watched they would frequently reverse 

 their orders by keeping the trout and returning 

 the chub. He volunteered the information that 

 now I had got through the worst of my troubles, 

 and that thenceforth there was not a yard of the 

 river that was not fishable and full of fish, a 

 statement which, for aught I know to the con- 

 trary, may be quite true as regards the latter 

 part of it, but that it is fly-fishable I distinctly 

 deny. He also informed me that he knew 



