THE WHITE HORSE 63 



ticm it was useless to pass the same fly over him 

 again, and if you changed your fly for something 

 more like the insect he was now and then suck- 

 ing in (for he never makes a plunge in such 

 circumstances), he treated it just in the same 

 contemptuous way. After a good deal of fruit- 

 less practice of this kind, we made the wonderful 

 discovery that it is work and skill thrown away 

 to cast a fly over a trout in bright, dead water, 

 especially when the sun is on it. Of course we 

 waited and watched for a windy ripple and a 

 clouded sun, but for this we had often long to 

 wait. 



It was useful experience, for we soon came to 

 know the exact spot where every big trout lay, 

 and we were not long in finding out that they 

 generally chose for themselves the most in- 

 accessible quarters; they really seem to know 

 precisely how overhanging branches or tufts of 

 weeds, or spreading willows and bushy banks, 

 old oaks spreading their long, leafy arms down 

 low over the water, combine to protect them 

 from the wily angler. 



I know a spot where a brown trout lies, just 

 on the edge of the shade of a very thick and 

 prickly hawthorn ; the Professor, who discovered 



