94 In Pursuit of the Trout 



cross it almost anywhere without risking a 

 wetting, and draw out your fly from the 

 sedge or willow on the opposite bank, to 

 which, no matter how skilful you be, the 

 hook will now and then attach itself. The 

 water is so transparent that the tiniest of 

 objects may be seen on the gravelly bed in 

 places where the weeds are few and far 

 between. This being so, it is easy to 

 understand why the trout see the angler, or 

 even the thin shadow cast by his rod, at a 

 long distance off, and rush off to scare their 

 neighbours, causing in the very shallow spots 

 quite ' a wash ' by the waves they make. 



I found nobody on the water on my 

 arrival. The fishing-hut, a compact little 

 wooden structure, whither the members of 

 the club repair for tea in the summer after- 

 noons when nothing is doing, was locked, 

 and looking round I could see no sign of 

 human life or activity in all the meadows or 

 in rich corn-lands above. I was alone amid 

 the gently sloping hills and the little green 

 valleys that prescribe to hard-worked Lon- 



