156 AN ANGLER'S HOURS ix 



moment after at a real fly. We try again, 

 and he takes the artificial fearlessly, and 

 yet is missed the second time. But the 

 third time we strike quickly, and hook 

 something of no great size. It proves to be 

 a dace of half a pound rather a disappoint- 

 ment ; we were sure it must be a trout. 

 There are not many dace in these ditches, 

 but a few come up from the brook after the 

 May-fly, and a small pike or two come up 

 after them. The brook joins the river some 

 three miles lower down, and, though it 

 mostly contains trout, a few coarse fish 

 inevitably make their way into its deeper 

 holes. 



The ditch runs into the brook at a point 

 where several trees make it impossible to 

 throw a fly from this side, and there is 

 generally a good trout lying there, quite 

 conscious, no doubt, of being unassailable. 

 Below the trees is the little brick bridge 

 leading across the brook to the farmyard, 

 and below the bridge is what is known as 

 " the pool." It deserves its name, for it is 

 an ideal trout- stream pool. The current 

 flows rather swiftly through the single arch 

 of the bridge, and loses itself in the still 



