UNDER-WATER EXPERIMENTS. 7 



enough for it to clear ; I was also unaccustomed to the business and 

 could not manage to lie still, nor avoid stirring up the mud. " All I 

 can tell you is," I said, at last, "that it looks just like a living fly 

 working its legs and wings." 



Our curiosity being greatly excited, the experiment was rehearsed 

 elsewhere. 



Of all the places I have tried thus, the best and the worst was the 

 one particular pond at Bradbourne Vale (then the property of Mr. 

 Hughes). It was best, because its bed was not muddy, whilst the water 

 itself was brighter than the proverbial gin. It was worst, because the 

 water was icy cold. There, nevertheless, I practised year after year, and 

 notes of my observations were taken by some of the interested parties 

 who generally attended the entertainment. The penalty I paid for my 

 under-water investigations was a slight deafness, which affects me still. 



We came to the conclusion, that the stiller the surface of the water, 

 the more favourable it is for inspection : that the brighter the day, so 

 long as the sun is not in the background, the more clearly can the details 

 and the conduct of the fly-materials be scrutinised : that, however 

 seemingly still the water may be, there is always a movement in some 

 part of the fly : also that, to the human eye, a dark fly shows best on a 

 dark day, whilst in bright weather the fly of many colours is more easily 

 and more minutely distinguishable. But this was not all. I benefited 

 further, for it taught me the grand lesson not to " play " long-hackled 

 patterns which, of themselves, unassisted by rod-action, assume a life- 

 like motion even in the quietest water possible. I also learnt that a 

 person talking on the bank can be heard by another under water. 

 Whether a fish can so hear, is a question. 



There is information here, without doubt, that can be turned to 

 practical good in Salmon-fishing. I hope the few deductions that I was 

 enabled to draw from these experiments will be found useful, as being 

 sound, so far as they go. To them I owe many a success, and this 

 especially induces me to submit them to my readers with confidence. 

 The system I wish to exemplify is, to all intents and purposes, based on 

 some practice that is at once consistent and intelligible. The trial has 

 been in many a struggle for the day's " top score " on Association waters 



