A DAY ON THE ITCHEN 83 



perpetually, to take natural flies only, however 

 often he saw the artificial, and however many 

 patterns thereof were presented for his inspec- 

 tion. At last, at the very end of the season, 

 he made a mistake and was landed successfully, 

 after a tremendous struggle. 



Some trout are lethargic both in character 

 and mood. These may remain permanently, 

 as it seems to us who only visit the water by 

 day deep down in the water and quite inert, 

 seemingly asleep. With such trout I have had 

 no success, and after much unrewarded effort I 

 have given up trying to take them. There is 

 a certain tradition of backsliding from com- 

 plete candour in fishing-stories which makes 

 me hesitate before adding a true tale of one 

 such fish who was abnormally indifferent to his 

 surroundings, but all fly-fishermen will recognize 

 the truth of this particular story, because, if 

 not true, why should I place before them such 

 damning evidence of frailty and deviation from 

 the fly-fishers' code of morality ? A certain 

 valued friend, who was forbidden by his doctor 

 to eat nearly all foods but fish, was coming to 

 luncheon with us. We had no fish. I took 

 my rod down to a small chalk-stream con- 

 taining large trout, and soon spotted one, lying 

 fairly deep in the water and quite inert, on a 



