THE DUFFER'S FORTNIGHT 219 



less desirable in my eyes, a day spoilt by floods 

 of rain and a thickening of the stream, and of another 

 day when pusillanimous retreat before a storm 

 deprived me of the half -hour in which the trout 

 really were on. But what is the use of more ado ? 

 How am I to persuade trout to take dragon-flies, 

 and so repair my fortunes? That is now become 

 the question." 



One more moral and the chapter must come to its 

 close. This is connected with the conditions which 

 prevail on a hard-fished ticket-water on which I 

 took a rod one year. 



With the Mayfly on the wing every single soul 

 who could be on the water was on the water, which 

 meant a considerable congregation of souls. And 

 that meant what is pleasantly called " intensive " 

 fishing that is to say, wherever you happened to 

 be a brother angler would be within exclamation 

 distance, possibly even within a whisper. Where 

 there are plenty of trout intent on Mayfly this does 

 not perhaps seriously affect sport, but still, one 

 prefers a little more elbow-room when one can get 

 it, if only because exclamations are not always 

 intended for other ears. Also I still hold, despite 

 sea-angling festivals and the like, that angling 

 is of its nature a solitary diversion. 



I got out none too early (several experiences 

 on that water ultimately convinced me that to 



