NATURE NEAR LONDON 



tinued. For three summers I had the pleasure to 

 see the trout day after day whenever I walked that 

 way, and all that time, with fishermen close at 

 hand, he escaped notice, though the place was not 

 preserved. It is wonderful to think how difficult 

 it is to see anything under one's very eyes, and 

 thousands of people walked actually and physically 

 right over the fish. 



However, one morning in the third summer, I 

 found a fisherman standing in the road and fishing 

 over the parapet in the shadowy water. But he 

 was fishing at the wrong arch, and only with paste 

 for roach. While the man stood there fishing, 

 along came two navvies ; naturally enough they 

 went quietly up to see what the fisherman was 

 doing, and one instantly uttered an exclamation. 

 He had seen the trout. The man who was fish- 

 ing with paste had stood so still and patient that 

 the trout, re-assured, had come out, and the 

 navvy trust a navvy to see anything of the kind 

 caught sight of him. 



The navvy knew how to see through water. He 

 told the fisherman, and there was a stir of ex- 

 citement, a changing of hooks and bait. I could 

 not stay to see the result, but went on, fearing the 

 worst. But he did not succeed; next day the 

 wary trout was there still, and the next, and 

 the next. Either this particular fisherman was not 



