STREAM-FISHING 99 



rejects a fly because its legs, otherwise of the approved 

 tone of blue, are without amber extremities, and so ob- 

 tuse that he fails to see that these same legs, which 

 should be but six in number, are as the sand on the 

 sea-shore for multitude, and in their anatomy convey 

 no suggestion of the real. He is a strange blend of 

 stupidity and genius. Happily, he does not deserve 

 his reputation ; if he did, man's ingenuity would be 

 applied in vain to the discovery of a means 

 of circumventing him. In reality, his mind 

 is but poorly furnished, and he seems to 

 learn little from experience. Impressions 

 are quickly effaced from his memory, and 

 incidents forgotten as soon as past. In- 

 stances of his dulness of apprehension might 

 be quoted by the score. The fact is, that 

 we read ourselves into the trout and ascribe to him 

 thouorhts and motives similar to our own. We forgret 

 that he is but a fish and that his intelligence is com- 

 mensurate with the organisation of his brain. 



But if he is not the intellectual prodigy of the 

 angler's imagination he is quick-eyed, shy, fearful and 

 nervous, and his capture is not to be carelessly or 

 thoughtlessly essayed. Now and then, however, we 

 have cause to wonder if in the thought expended on the 



