LOOSE STRANDS 191 



remain unbroken by the movements of a fish. As a 

 rule, however, it may be looked for at some period of 

 the forenoon, though the angler need not abandon hope 

 should mid-day find him with an empty creel ; the 

 afternoon will sometimes yield him ample compensation 

 for the poverty of the earlier hours of the day. Nor, 

 however encouraging, is a rise an indispensable condi- 

 tion of his success. On the majority of waters, it is 

 true, his skill is exercised in vain unless the fish are 

 visibly indulging a desire for food ; but where the 

 means of life are sparingly supplied, his flies will 

 be readily accepted, present them when he may. 

 I have, from ten o'clock in the morning until five in 

 the afternoon, enjoyed uninterrupted sport although 

 during the entire time not half a dozen trout were 

 seen to rise. 



It is not the hour of the rise alone that the angler 

 finds incalculable ; its extent and duration are equally 

 beyond conjecture. Occasionally it is sparse and soon 

 over, while at other times our ears are, for hours to- 

 gether, gladdened by the plashing murmur of surface- 

 feeding fish. The rise begins and ends abruptly ; it is 

 not heralded by single spies, and no loiterers remain 

 when it is past. On a loch of some extent and varying 

 depth it is often local ; all portions of the water are not 



