84 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



very young eel, which can climb over 

 practically anything, could go through 

 it ; and never in the course of many 

 wanderings had I found other than 

 small trout in a pool out of which there 

 was no free course up the water. In 

 mountain streams there are frequent 

 pools of that kind, and experience had 

 seemed to teach that they were not 

 worth dallying over. It was not in the 

 confined pools, howsoever good to look 

 at, but in the open spaces, that the best 

 trout were to be found. I dared say to 

 myself that when I overtook him my 

 jovial host would have a few fine fish in 

 the creel and I myself should have none. 



"But what was that?" I had 

 suddenly to ask. 



I had been casting from the bridge, 

 lazily, carelessly, expecting nothing ; but 

 surely that was a rise in the middle of 

 the heaving waves ? It had been at one 

 of my flies, too ; and it could be no 

 troutlet that left such a mark in such 

 turbulent water. 



