94 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



on or just landed. Surely, the beholder 

 may feel, it is instinct that guides him ? 

 How otherwise could he unerringly cast 

 his flies just where fish are lying ? How 

 have so many rises ? How miss so in- 

 frequently ? A generalised answer seems 

 possible. We have seen that aptness 

 in striking a fish under the surface 

 springs not from instinct or divination 

 but from acuteness of sight ; perhaps a 

 delicate sense of touch assists the eye. 

 All other phenomena in the practice of 

 the fisherman who astonishes by success 

 are equally aspects of skill derived 

 from intelligence and experience. If 

 it be not very large, a trout-stream 

 visited for the first time is as an open 

 book to the well-trained angler. The 

 fish of very large rivers have pecu- 

 liarities of habit, here shunning what 

 seem good places, and there crowding into 

 places apparently unattractive ; but those 

 of what may be called ordinary streams 

 are uniform in their ways. That is 

 how a good man, though quite new to a 



