FLY-FISHING BY NIGHTLIGHT. 195 



reed-ponds, and the wooded shores of creeks and 

 islands. Lakes which do not possess these local 

 characteristics will seldom be found suitable for this 

 kind of angling. The large fish are doubtless at- 

 tracted to the localities indicated by the small fry of 

 various kinds which frequent them, and the abundance 

 of insect life amongst woods and shady places. The 

 proofs indeed of this idiosyncracy of large trout, if 

 not visible to the eye, are often made sensibly audible 

 to the ear of the night angler, by the frequent plunges 

 after small fish, and the hollow gulps of juicy moths 

 or caterpillars, heard amongst the reeds or under the 

 shade of trees. 



But the conclusion of our remarks upon local 

 fitness for this kind of angling, and of Pat's yarn, 

 about the enchanted horse of the lake, has brought 

 us to a favourable specimen of fishing-ground along 

 the reedy and wooded shore of an island of consider- 

 able extent. Pat instinctively and silently crosses 

 the oars, the boat's side is given to the breeze, and as 

 it drifts evenly and slowly before the wind, the 

 anglers alternately drop their flies on the waves. 

 Expectation, not unfrequently mixed perhaps with 

 rivalry about a first rise, supersedes precept and lake 

 lore. The angling virtue of patience, however, so 

 necessary on all occasions, is pre-eminently required 

 here. The larger description of trout I have never 

 found so numerous in any water that I have fished, 



