capture a fly or bug which may be struggling on the 

 surface of the river. 



These movements furnish food for study and should 

 be noted by the boy who wants to learn all he can 

 concerning the creatures. Of the many instances which 

 interested my boy and I, one occurred in the Potomac 

 near the Monocacy River an evening in July, which 

 would have made a picture for an artist, and which 

 will never be forgotten by either of us. The sun 

 had gone down and our boatman was slowly pulling 

 us in the direction of home. We were moving up 

 stream and I had run out about fifty yards of line 

 with a live bait at the end. The boat crossed a 

 ripple, about the middle of which was a continual 

 wave with a high crest, which, after we had passed 

 over, appeared like a sheet of glass rising from the 

 surface of the water. My trolling bait, at the end of 

 a modernately slack-line, reachefd the wave and was 

 lifted up into it so that we could distinctly observe the 

 chub as if in the middle of a glass in a frame, the 

 bait parallel with the surface of the river. At that 

 instant a one- pound, small-mouthed bass attacked the 

 chub, face to face with it, and hung to the hook. The 

 whole picture of the floating bait and bass, one after 

 the other, was clearly and distinctly portrayed as if 

 behind a glass on the wall. It was over in a moment, 

 but it could have been snapped by a camera had it 

 been anticipated. It was a most remarkable and 

 inspiring presentation, and my old boatman, George 

 Walters, never forgets to relate the incident to 

 interest willing listeners. The "Picture in the Wave," 

 as we named it, was worth all the fish we had caught 

 and its like will never be seen again. 



92 



