224 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xm 



a dry fly may be put over them with ad- 

 vantage. Dry or wet, only one fly should 

 be used, and it should be rather larger than 

 those employed on a river. There is also 

 another method, which I have not mentioned, 

 well worth trying on summer evenings, and 

 that is dibbling with a real moth or some 

 other large insect. I incline to think that 

 the man who fishes in this way is the truest 

 disciple of Izaak Walton, who loved it 

 beyond all other kinds. But how you shall 

 get your fish out when you have hooked 

 him is entirely a matter for yourself to 

 arrange with Providence. 



Prepared, then, to fish as seemeth him 

 best, the angler will proceed to investigate 

 the stream. Let us take Farmer John's water 

 as the scene of his operations, for it is typical 

 of the brook in general. It includes two 

 disused and dilapidated mills, about a mile 

 apart, with their mill-pounds and mill-tails, 

 backwaters and weirs, if that name can be 

 given to little falls about five feet wide. As 

 the mills have not been working for years, 

 there is only a trickle of water running under 

 their wheels, and the tails below are shallow 

 and weedy and not worth fishing. The 



