ON RAPID STREAMS. 41 



into still, clear, shallow water, and we find the 

 ordinarily larger and more extensive rapids now 

 so diminished as to just afford us the aid we want, 

 these alone reminding us of what our favourite 

 stream had once been, now so changed and 

 altered as to be with difficulty recognized : and 

 whereas when of average height we could not 

 move five yards without meeting some, ay many 

 pleasing spots wherein to cast our fly, we, now 

 that there is so little water in the bed of the river, 

 have to wander meadow after meadow and meet 

 with disappointment in our search after some 

 nice little rippling pool that our knowledge tells 

 us is sure to yield sport. Thus do we at these 

 unlucky times vainly wander for miles, led by 

 delusive hope, picturing to 'ourselves in our 

 imaginations these vspots of fortune, till weary 

 limbs and exhausted frame bring reality and 

 deliberate judgment to convince us of the ab- 

 surdity of our visionary pursuit. 



We repeat then, that though the water be very 

 low and the weather very bright, we shall obtain 

 sport in those kinds of places which we should 

 select at ordinary times, in fact in the feeding 

 places before spoken of; but inasmuch as these 

 places are, by the diminution of the water, 

 lessened in number, we shall not catch so many 

 fish in very low water as when it is of an average 

 summer height; not that the fish at these times 

 are sporting the less, but that our difficulties 

 of catching them are the more; neither must 

 it be thought that at -such times we cannot 



