26 WHA T I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



shape, size and colourings were visible ! And who 

 could doubt what his intentions were towards his 

 offspring ? But the little ones were too nimble for 

 daddy, and the, to some people, vexed question, 

 " Do salmon feed in fresh water ? " received no 

 elucidation. A 1 2 Ib. fish sinks back into the peaty, 

 brown depths, and little salmon gather again, this 

 time to be dispersed by the passing up of dashing 

 sea-trout, each of which in its turn gives an extra 

 flash of its side in recognition of the more rapid 

 water that it encounters as it leaves the pool. 

 Peep straight down. You will do it best by 

 turning your face sideways and using one eye. 

 There lies a big trout behind a sheltering rock, 

 his wing-fins moving automatically in response to 

 the flow of water ; but now and then a fraction of 

 the upper portion of a big tail will quiver as the 

 owner of it irresolutely scans a passing something. 

 I am patience itself on a Sunday ; so, sooner or 

 later, I see the tail make a movement that sends 

 an open mouth within sucking-down distance of a 

 fluttering fly. 



For some considerable distance after this the 

 river comes down over shallows and tumbles over 

 rocks and stones, forming here and there miniature 

 cascades which drop into pretty little pools, where 

 brown trout have summer homes. At the corner, 

 where the high banks are wooded, and where the 

 rocks run out and confine the stream to a channel 

 that might be stepped across, it is spouted down 



