62 FISHING IN EDEN 



This time of the morning " take " was now 

 earlier, excepting when a heavy dew lay on the 

 grass. The peewits were more excited than ever 

 when one passed through the rough pastures farther 

 away from the farms. Here and there one would 

 come across their downy young, lying tight to the 

 ground at one's feet. 



Good fishing could also be continued later in the 

 day. Most of the snow broth from the Pennines 

 had been washed away, and the water was warmer, 

 encouraging a new, reedy growth in the marshy 

 places, and the deep edges of the riyer. Wild 

 cherry bloom was showing here and there in the 

 woods. Sometimes, as one waded behind the low 

 overhanging alder trees, one could pick up in the 

 net little floating balls of what looked like thistle- 

 down heads, with a dash of vermilion in their centres 

 water-hen chicks, taking their first quiet sail on 

 the bosom of their mother stream. 



All kinds of weather had been experienced in the 

 month of April sun, rain, and storm, and the fells 

 had been white to their lowest slopes on many morn- 

 ings. There had also been plenty of opportunity 

 to study, on the spot, " Bob's " various precepts 

 and methods, and to bring them into actual practice ; 

 precepts which fitted both weather and water, and 

 the growing season's changes in the habits of the fish. 



