154 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



see his basket, a very capacious one, 

 which I found to be packed to the brim ; 

 gave me a Mayfly ; and went off to catch 

 a train. 



Anglers at large will not think of 

 his doings with unanimous admiration. 

 Some of them will disapprove severely. 

 These are they who, after having banned 

 the worm, the gentle, the creeper, and 

 the minnow, are disposed towards ban- 

 ning the Mayfly also. They think that 

 all these lures, even though suited to 

 comparatively rare occasions, are too 

 effective. Unfortunately, there is no 

 great reason for their dread of the 

 Mayfly. That beautiful creature fell 

 upon evil days, which are not yet over. 

 Its struggle for life is severe. It is far 

 from being so ephemeral as it is called 

 and seems. Two years elapse between 

 the laying of the egg and the coming 

 of the full-fledged insect. During that 

 period its home is in or on the soil at the 

 bottom of the water. It dies in any 

 stream that is poisonously polluted. In 



