150 WILD NATURE IN STRATHEARN. 



mer months, when the Earn is low and clear, 

 it is difficult to entice trouts of any size to 

 rise to the fly, as by that time they are fat and 

 lazy, and surfeited with ground bait in the form 

 of larvae of various species of aquatic insects, 

 that of the stone-fly predominating. In the 

 quiet parts of the river in the pools and ditches 

 adjoining may be seen bits of rotten-looking 

 straw or decayed-looking bits of sticks moving 

 in the water. These are multitudes of larva; of 

 different species and sizes, encrusted with 

 various substances. They may be found adher- 

 ing to stones and stumps, or crawling about the 

 bottom of every pool in the vicinity of the 

 river, like animated pieces of straw,' the head 

 and forelegs alone protruding from the orifices 

 of their unique habitations. 



A careful angler who knows the water and 

 the lie of the fish may make a fair basket of 

 trout on the hottest day in summer by fishing 

 up stream with worm, using very fine tackle, 

 and fishing in the shallow parts where the water 



