30 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



gentleman who had so confidently assured me that it 

 was a male. It is, I think, more likely that he was not 

 quite so well informed as he supposed than that nature 

 had produced a miracle. 



The angler evokes my admiration. I contemplate 

 his wide and varied knowledge with respectful awe, 

 and marvel at the intelligence displayed in its collection. 

 Nothing escapes his quick perception. Even the mind 

 of the trout is an open book in which he reads with 

 fluency. He apprehends the inmost thought of that 

 surprising fish and has a ready explanation of its every 

 action. If, at times, I find his explanation unconvincing, 

 it is possibly because of my obtuseness. Once, em- 

 bittered by repeated disappointment, I asked a brother 

 angler why, since they were evidently not in quest of 

 food, the salmon and the sea-trout were leaping in such 

 numbers and so actively. " I thought everybody knew 

 that ! " was his reply. " They are on their way to the 

 redds, but as they are uncertain of the distance they 

 have yet to travel, they are rising with the object of 

 ascertaining their position in the stream." I was 

 reduced to a condition of abject humility ; the solution 

 of a problem so absurdly simple should have been 

 obvious to the meanest understanding. But this is a 

 digression. 



