CHAP. V.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 1 19 



none can well teach him. And if he hit to make his fly right, 

 and have the luck to hit also where there is store of Trouts, a 

 dark day, and a right wind, he will catch such store of them 

 as will encourage him to grow more and more in love with the 

 art of fly-making. 



VEN. But, my loving Master, if any wind will not serve, 

 then I wish I were in Lapland, to buy a good wind of one 

 of the honest witches, that sell so many winds there, and so 

 cheap. 



Pise. Marry, Scholar, but I would not be there, nor indeed 

 from under this tree : for look how it begins to rain, and by 

 the clouds, if I mistake not, we shall presently have a smoking 

 shower : and therefore sit close ; this sycamore-tree will shelter 

 us : and I will tell you, as they shall come into my mind, more 

 observations of Fly-fishing for a Trout. 



But first for the wind : you are to take notice, that of the 

 winds the south wind is said to be best. One observes, 



that 



" when the wind is south 

 It blows your bait into a fish's mouth." 



Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the best : and 

 having told you that the east wind is the worst, I need not tell 

 you which wind is the best in the third degree : and yet, as 

 Solomon observes, Eccles. xi. 4, that "he that considers the 

 wind shall never sow " ; so he that busies his head too much 

 about them, if the weather be not made extreme cold by an 

 east wind, shall be a little superstitious : for as it is observed 

 by some, that there is no good horse of a bad color, so I have 

 observed that if it be a cloudy day, and not extreme cold, 

 let the wind sit in what corner it will, and do its worst, I heed 

 it not. And yet take this for a rule, that I would willingly 

 fish standing on the lee-shore : and you are to take notice, that 

 the fish lies or swims nearer the bottom, and in deeper water, 

 in winter than in summer ; and also nearer the bottom in a 

 cold day, and then gets nearest the lee-side of the water. 



