392 THE SALMON FLY. 



violent for her needs. The watery areas of the earth are effected under 

 special and highly beneficial conditions, for water heing a poor conductor, 

 takes in and gives out heat very slowly very slowly storing much of it 

 in summer, and very slowly releasing it in winter with the effect of 

 moderating the cold of the one season and the heat of the other. 

 Thus, too, rivers preserve a much more equable temperature than their 

 banks. 



As to the comparatively bad sport on the Don, I am almost convinced 

 that I had hit a clue. In my opinion, the sun was at the bottom of it 

 all, for with me the air was bitterly cold, the water warm. Under those 

 conditions, the sport is never good. But in cold seasons the soil along the 

 valley of the Dee brings more fortunate conditions. It is from 20 to 25 

 degrees warmer than the surface of the snow above it ; so, of course, the 

 icy chilliness of the water during a thaw is not nearly so perceptible in the 

 one river as in the other. 



To resolve the questions which arise from a sudden push of water 

 lessees can erect at a trifling cost, an automatic Water Gauge that registers 

 the exact height of the river they fish. Not once but many times have I 

 made arrangements over night to send friends to that " sure cast," little 

 knowing that in the morning it would be the worst on the whole beat. 

 The unlucky ones would go and thrash away until at length they learnt 

 to the disappointment of all concerned, that the reach had been trans- 

 formed into barren water, and put altogether out of ply. And, moreover, 

 it has occurred in my own experience to have got up early to make a 

 fly or two for a friend, and afterwards to have directed him to stand 

 on a certain stone beside a stream, cast and bring his rod round and 

 hold it there till the fly fishes on the inner side of the jutting current 

 below one inch rise in the river or even less, and our joint efforts are 

 vain, for all the " holding " in the world would not cause the fly to cover 

 a Catch of that sort. 



All these and other disadvantages are obviated by bringing into use a 

 simple and inexpensive apparatus, which can be made at home and fixed 

 by an angling gillie of ordinary intelligence. 



The water gauge is simply a long hollow square box, in which rises 

 and falls the connected corks according to variations in the height of 



