176 ANGLING. 



fish in the basket of an English gentleman, who had caught it 

 near Mpntfort, a delightful locality of the Rifle, on which the gray 

 walls of the castle of Hugh de Montfort still stands, which with- 

 stood a thirty days' attack from our Henry I., in the year 1122. 



"The river Rille, at Pont Audeiner, is divided into several 

 branches, when it arrives at the town, which contains about five 

 thousand inhabitants. But in all the divisions of the stream, and 

 even within the confines of manufacturing works, trout of good 

 size and fine flavour are to be had. I killed two very fine ones 

 close to a mill-race. 



" I set off in a day or two after for Pont V Eveques, on the river 

 Tongues, a very fine stream. Here I tried minnow, though not a 

 favourite bait with me, and caught some fine trout, during about 

 two hours I wandered by the sides of the river. I then put on fly, 

 but met with but indifferent success. The fish were rising here 

 and there at, apparently, a very small gnat fly ; but with all the 

 care I could exercise, they obstinately refused to have anything to 

 say to my bait, though I presented them in succession with nearly 

 the whole range of my fly-book. The next day was highly favour- 

 able in point of weather, being rather dull, with a gentle breeze 

 playing on the still pools. Here I had better success. I took 

 eight trout, six of which I gave to one of the cottagers of a small 

 village by the river-side, and the other two I had cooked in my tin 

 digester ; and a delicious meal they made. But the English must 

 remember that the women who cooked the viands, put nearly half 

 a pound of butter along with them. How fond the Erench are of 

 this article ! 



" I went to Contances, a fishing station of some little note in Nor- 

 mandy. There are two streams in this vicinity, both well stocked 

 with trout, but not of a large kind. The waters were rather thick 

 and puddly, from some recent showers of rain, accompanied with 

 very loud thunder ; and this rather spoiled the attempts at fly. I 

 took out my artificial minnow, and got four with it in less than 

 half an hour ; and for other three hours, I never saw a single fish. 

 There was a good deal of brushwood and jungle about some spots 

 in the streams ; and this, among other things, put me somewhat 

 out of humour with the place. I determined, therefore, to set out 

 for the Ome, in its higher waters, and to go down till I came 

 to the city of Caen, where I knew I should meet with some 

 kindred spirits of the angle. 



"After a pretty stiff journey, I reached the Orne about five miles 

 above Argentan. I stopped here two days, and had some fair sport ; 

 but I obtained the largest of the trout by minnow and worm. I 

 was much puzzled here about flies. The fish rose greedily each 

 day I was out about three o'clock in the afternoon, for about half 

 an hour, at some little insect ; but with all my efforts I could not 

 get to see what it really was. I tried with _ all the small flies I 

 could muster, but they never deigned to notice me. What I did 

 catch, I got with large winged bait ; and at the tail of strong and 

 rapid running streams. I fished down the river till I arrived at 



