154 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



serpentine course through smiling valleys, deep ravines, 

 wild moorlands, and virgin forests until it joins the 

 treacherous Dniestr. In parts the banks of the first- 

 named stream are fringed with beautiful willows and other 

 water-loving trees. There are, however, plenty of open 

 reaches where one can throw a fly without fear of getting 

 " hung-up," and the clean gravelly bed of the stream 

 would delight the eye of any English fly-fisherman. 

 Indeed, it is strange to me that the rivers and streams of 

 Galicia are not better known to British devotees of the 

 rod, for goodly trout are to be found in many of them. 



Before starting on the business of the day B. went in 

 search of dry sticks with which to build a fire, while I 

 busied myself preparing the various good things which 

 we had brought with us in the picnic hamper. He soon 

 returned with a double armful of dry twigs, and, having 

 laid them under the drooping branches of the weeping- 

 willow which formed our camping-ground, he filled 

 the kettle with water from the river, whilst I set light to 

 the sticks and very soon had a pan of Frankfurter 

 sausages hissing over the blazing fire. To build a second 

 fire upon which to boil the kettle was but the work of 

 a very few minutes, and long ere our friends in the neigh- 

 bouring town had awakened from their " beauty sleep " 

 we were enjoying an al fresco breakfast in the midst of the 

 most beautiful forest and mountain scenery to be found 

 in all Galicia. 



Breakfast finished, the light ten-foot split canes were 

 put together, and, having arranged to meet at the same 

 spot under the willow at midday, my companion and 

 I parted, he going up while I elected to try my luck 

 down stream. There was no lack of insect-life on the. 



