LOOSE STRANDS 193 



in June, and the water, stirred by a breeze of wind 

 from the west, shimmered in the Hght of a burning 

 sun. The trout were leaping over all the loch, and 

 rose to the artificial fly as eagerly as to the natural. 

 They rose to every cast, but were rarely touched. 

 The consistency with which they turned away from 

 the lure just as they seemed about to grasp it became 

 exasperating, and its effect on a temper at all times 

 impatient, was fatal. It encouraged hasty and inartful 

 casting and induced a tendency to strike wildly in the 

 hope of securing the fish whether they would or not. 

 Though the day was large in promise, the results were 

 meagre ; I hooked but one in seven or eight of the 

 fish that rose to me. It may have been that the bright 

 light revealed the artifice to the trout as they ap- 

 proached the surface, but the day was no brighter than 

 the day before had been, and on it they had shown 

 no irritating shyness of the fly. Short rising, besides, 

 is not confined to days of brilliant sunshine ; it is, at 

 times, as trying to the anglers patience when the 

 sky is over-cast and the light is dull and grey. It is 

 not unknown even in the dusk. According to Mr. 

 Smurthwaite, it is due to the employment of a fly not 

 merely of the wrong colour, but of the wrong tone. 

 Between the lure and the insect it simulates there exists 



