STREAM-FISHING 103 



cast down stream and drag his flies upward against the 

 current. By night the trout sees nothing surprising in 

 a spectacle that by day inevitably rouses his lightly 

 sleeping fears ; or is it that between sunset and dawn 

 a fly achieves, without effort, a feat of which, during 

 the remaining hours of the twenty-four, it is altogether 

 incapable ? 



It is also permissible to fish down rough, broken, 

 quickly running water ; usually, indeed, it is impossible 

 to fish such water in any other way. 



Many years ago I was in the habit of fishing a little 

 stream to the creation of which nature had contributed 

 but small assistance. It owes its being to the hands 

 of man. Its mission is strictly utilitarian, and it seems 

 to know it. There is an air of business about it, 

 a hint of an object in front, it is pressing to attain. 

 It hurries swirling and eddying along as if conscious 

 that life is earnest and time too precious to be thrown 

 away. For it, is no loitering by the way to toy with 

 sweet forget-me-nots or play among the cresses ; it is 

 informed by a steady purpose from which nothing di- 

 verts it. It neither chatters over stony ways nor 

 babbles on the pebbles ; it pursues a reserved and 

 silent course. It is no frivolous, irresponsible brook 

 laughing and leaping without a care, without a thought 



