ON RAPID STREAMS. 177 



the season would ordinarily include the time be- 

 tween the first of February and first of Septem- 

 ber. If the weather be cold and the winter long, 

 there is not much to be done in most of the 

 streams till March; but the Exe is an early river, 

 and affords excellent sport in February, when the 

 trout are usually in good condition. 



To put the worm on the hook : hold the worm 

 between your left fore-finger and thumb, keeping 

 the head uppermost; take' the hook between your 

 right fore-finger and thumb, enter the point at 

 the very apex of the head, pass it down through 

 the body till you come to the knot, which you 

 will find in all those little gilt-tail worms ; through 

 the middle of this thickened and tough substance 

 pass out the point, and push the worm up till it* 

 lies on the shank of the hook, so that from one 

 side of the shank will be the tail of the worm 

 wriggling and twisting about, and on the other, 

 the bend and point of the hook uncovered and 

 exposed ; you will thus have rather less than one- 

 half of the worm on the hook, the rest free and 

 unfixed. So also the shank of your hook is 

 covered with that portion of the worm which is 

 transfixed, but the bend and all beyond it is per- 

 fectly bare and uncovered by worm. This keeps 

 only the smaller portion of the worm in an un- 

 natural and stiff position, the larger portion being 

 free to twist and turn about in the water, so that 

 the entire worm resembles very closely in ap- 

 pearance an ordinary worm as it would float, or 

 be washed down the water. By bringing the 



