28 AN ANGLER'S HOURS n 



Each day brought high wind and a sullen 

 sky, and the whole week added two more 

 small grayling to the catch. I did not 

 get another rise from the grayling a yard 

 long. 



Of the infirmity of purpose which caused 

 me to waste a third week in clutching the 

 inviolable shade I do not care to speak. 

 The gales continued, and I basketed a fish 

 on each of the two worst days. The last 

 three were ideal days for grayling, and the 

 fish were rising all over the river at every- 

 thing, apparently, except the artificial fly, 

 which I used in all the ways known to me, 

 both dry and wet, with less result than one 

 would have thought possible seven rises in 

 all, including one short one from the gray- 

 ling a yard long. 



And so at the end of the three weeks I 

 find myself 102 brace of grayling to the bad. 

 Trout, indeed, I caught, but I did not seek 

 for them. I wished to keep down the stock 

 of grayling, and I have failed lamentably. 

 Somehow the deficit must be made good. 

 There has been some talk of a net, a stern 

 proceeding which in the old days I depre- 

 cated. But now I shall be very happy to 



