ON RAPID STREAMS. 11 



secuted by the poacher, and having" plenty of food 

 are fat and handsome : to capture such trout we 

 must make our baits as natural as possible, select 

 such days as are most favourable to our deception, 

 imitate the exact fly we have just perhaps seen 

 on'e monster swallow, and be after all content 

 with the size of the few captured at the end of 

 ' the day, rather than the agility, activity, quick- 

 ness, and strength displayed by a larger number 

 of smaller fish. I remember having read in some 

 book on fishing by a great authority, that when 

 the wind is southerly, the. waters of proper colour 

 and quantity, the sky cloudy, the air warm, and 

 the season suitable, we may select our best flies, 

 go forth and hope for success in sport with trout, 

 then and then only ; but unfortunately every one 

 desiring sport may not be able on such special occa- 

 sions to withdraw himself from ordinary avocations 

 on a sudden without preparation, and take his 

 rod and fly book in immediate exchange for other 

 books on the chance of success. If such views as 

 these were in all cases correct, and so restricted, 

 very few would be able to participate in the plea- 

 sures of fly-fishing ; as most of us would care only 

 to make fishing the recreation and not the business 

 of life, we should desire to know how we could 

 render our amusement suitable to our own con- 

 venience of time, and be able whenever we wished 

 it to take a day's holiday and be tolerably certain 

 of a day's sport. To this, I am sorry to say, in 

 its universal application, I must admit that there 

 is a great obstacle, namely, in the locality or situa- 



