44 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 

 OF THE JUDICIOUS USE OF THE MOON. 



Though bHnder than the proverbial bat in any 

 slanting light, and therefore not as fortunate as I 

 should like to be in fishing the evening rise, and 

 though academically of opinion that fishing should 

 cease when the dusk no longer lets the angler 

 discern his fly, I confess to being at least as un- 

 willing as any better endowed with sight to leave 

 the water-side while the trout are still busy 

 sucking down the spinners ; but there are occasions 

 when, if the moon be up enough to cast black 

 shadows under the banks, and I can find the 

 suitable spot with rising fish, I envy no man his 

 superior eyesight — mine is good enough. Let me 

 illustrate my meaning by describing the occasion 

 on which I made my little discovery. 



It was an evening in July. I had not begun 

 fishing before four o'clock, and the afternoon had 

 only earned me a single trout, and he no great 

 shakes, either. The evening rise came on, and 

 the trout began to feed briskly ; but my infirmity 

 was against me, and I missed or misjudged several 

 rises, and it began to look as if I were going to 

 make nothing of my opportunity, when I came 

 to a bend where the current swung in pitch-black 

 shadow under the opposite bank, while between 

 the near edge of the shadow and my bank the 

 stream ran molten moonlight. Round the bend 

 in the dark I could hear the trout feeding away 



