WEATHER AND WIND 265 



more power into the cast. This time there is a lull 

 in the wind, and the line comes upon the water like 

 a flail, putting two of the rising trout down at its 

 one fell swoop. Then follows another struggle 

 with the herbage, and then a third rising fish is put 

 down, and lastly the fly hits the top of the rod with 

 a crack, which suggests that both must be broken. 

 After this the angler wonders whether conditions 

 would not be better on the other bank, where the 

 trees are, and he goes round to see. 



They are not better, only different. It proves 

 that on this side the wind comes straight down on 

 the water and then rebounds upwards. On its first 

 rebound it takes cast and fly with it into the maze 

 of young greenery, and there they remain probably 

 till autumn does her beneficent work of decay. The 

 angler goes away from the bridge, and starts on his 

 pilgrimage in search of calm. Up, down, back- 

 wards, forwards, round, behind, in front there is 

 no peace anywhere. The wind is all-embracing, 

 all-compelling. It absolutely fills the whole of that 

 valley, and no nook or corner is safe from it. And 

 everywhere it is resolutely set with its face down- 

 stream. 



What is the result? The dry-fly man struggles 

 on desperately till lunch time, and with despairing 

 eye watches the morning rise gradually petering 

 out into occasional belated splashes from yearlings, 



