24 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



too much. Does it? If either of the other 

 flies on the cast at the same time had 

 been as attractive as the Saltoun I should 

 perceive that it did ; but the other lures 

 were of no avail at all, and one of them 

 was a Greenwell, which has a general 

 resemblance to a Saltoun. That day it 

 was a Saltoun that the trout wanted ; 

 they rose at it with extraordinary avidity ; 

 and when it was within view they would 

 take no other lure. Beyond being obliged 

 to think that the fat black busking of the 

 hook made the lure resemble something 

 in nature for which the trout were 

 foraging, it seems impossible to tell why 

 the fly did just as well without wings as 

 it had done with them ; but who shall 

 deny that the incident was a proof that 

 trout discriminate ? 



It was not an exceptional incident. 

 There are innumerable analogies. Occa- 

 sionally you have no sport, or only a 

 rise now and then, for hours ; and you 

 look at the sky, and see it drear, or 

 at the flies, and suspect that the 



