80 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



reflects objects deep in the water or at the 

 bottom of the stream and screens from sight 

 everything in the air above. He gives us much 

 to ponder over. He explains the optical en- 

 vironment of creatures in the water-world. 

 They see upwards into the air only through 

 a sort of inverted cone with its base on the 

 surface of the water. Beyond the base of 

 the cone comes the " looking-glass," in which 

 objects beneath the water show upside-down 

 reflections, like the mirage of the desert, 

 above their true images. Until a dry-fly floats 

 into the window, or base of the cone, the 

 trout can see only the submerged portion, the 

 hackle and perhaps the body and the hook, 

 projecting through the surface of the looking- 

 glass. When the fly comes into the window 

 the whole of it appears, in silhouette, against 

 the sky. 



I have often wondered why a certain artificial 

 fly, which resembles no insect of my acquain- 

 tance, should do as well as it does in dry-fly 

 water. Trout sometimes move quite a long 

 distance to take it. It is dressed with a very 

 long, bristling hackle, which holds it well out 

 of the water, and wings pointed forward, with 

 either a quill or gold tinsel body. The friend 

 who earned my everlasting gratitude by teach- 



