80 



not so disposed. Beyond two or three facts, 

 we are almost wholly ignorant of the habits 

 of the trout. We know that, generally, 

 when the day is either very warm or very 

 cold for the season, and that when the 

 wind is in the north and east, or in any 

 point between these two, trout will rarely bite, 

 either at sunk bait or fly ; and this is about 

 the whole of what is positively known res- 

 pecting that state of the weather which has 

 an influence on their feeding. It has more 

 than once happened, that I have fished the 

 same water on two days of the same degree 

 of temperature, and similarly cloudy or clear, 

 with the wind in the same quarter, using 

 the same flies and tackle, and being on both 

 days equally diligent, and yet on one I have 

 caught a stone and a half of trout, and on 

 the other scarcely so many and those from 

 chance rises as would cover the bottom of 

 my creel. 



Reed, I have often made a similar obser- 

 vation, and have sometimes walked for miles, 

 on, to all appearance, a most favorable day, 



