EPISODICAL 207 



a feeding trout, but, finding none, I turned my thoughts to 

 the bank under which I had seen that broad brown back 

 turning down. The same little Red Sedge was available, 

 and the wind served to place it nicely under the opposite 

 bank. The fourth cast was a shade higher than the pre- 

 ceding casts, and a little dimple under the bank seemed a 

 disappointing result, until the quick, instinctive response 

 had driven on the steel, when the line was torn off with such 

 fury that my reel was three-quarters emptied in a moment. 

 Then a fine trout flung himself into the air, and again and 

 again. This part of my story is irrelevant to the subject 

 of this paper, so I omit to describe the splendid fight this 

 gallant fish put up before my net received his two and a 

 half pounds of weight. After this, though the trout began 

 to rise well, the morning was disappointing, for fly after 

 fly — Dotterel, Greenwell, Tup, Iron-blue dun (dry and 

 wet) — the fish either ignored or took so half-heartedly that 

 the hook did not hold, and one o'clock found me with only 

 one other trout in my bag. Then I noticed a sprinkling 

 of blue-winged olives coming down to the river, and, 

 watching them, I saw one or two taken, but many neglected. 

 Again I tried Orange Quill in vain, then the winged pattern 

 of Blue-winged Olive, getting only a few false rises, until 

 I got one foul-hooked just above the upper Up near the 

 right nostril. I obtained from him a disclosure of the 

 contents of his stomach, and found a long string of blue- 

 winged olive nymphs. A search in my box revealed a 

 single attempt to reproduce the blue-winged olive nymph 

 in seal's fur. It was soon knotted on, filled up with 

 glycerine (a foot of gut also being glycerined) , and despatched 

 above the first feeding trout. He recognized the re- 

 semblance right enough, as did several others between then 

 and three o'clock, and I wound up at the latter hour with 

 four brace to my credit, including my big friend. I have 



