LOOSE STRANDS 201 



circumstances which preclude all possibility of error. I 

 rose him on five different occasions with an interval of 

 several days between On each occasion the sun was 

 shining brightly, and in the colourless, pellucid water I 

 had an opportunity of seeing him distinctly as he ap- 

 proached the fly. He invariably rose in precisely the 

 same place. So kenspeckle was he and so convincing 

 the circumstances in which we foregathered, that it 

 seemed impossible to be mistaken in his identity ; cer- 

 tainly nothing will persuade me that the shapely three- 

 pound trout that succumbed to the seductions of a 

 small March Brown — in Augfust — was not the same 

 trout that, a month before, had taken and succeeded in 

 ejecting a little Red and Teal. 



Whether the trout in the loch all lie with their heads 

 in the same direction, is a problem which, although it 

 seems of small importance, has long concerned the 

 anofler. It should not be difficult to solve ; examina- 

 tion of trout in an aquarium should settle it at once. 

 But even that appears to involve an unnecessary ex- 

 penditure of energy, for we may safely infer that in the 

 absence of a stream the trout dispose themselves in any 

 attitude they please. 



In casting, the angler's object is to place his flies 

 lightly on the water at the very spot desired, and the 

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