84 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 

 IN THE GLASS EDGE. 



A more unpromising May day than that I now 

 tell of it would be hard to conceive. The wind — 

 from the west, with a bite of north in it — blew for 

 the most part dead across stream with strong, 

 shuddering gusts, so violent at times as to force 

 the angler, taken unawares, two or three steps 

 nearer to the water's edge, and more than once 

 nearly to precipitate him into the water between 

 the sedgy tussocks which fringed one side of this 

 length of Upper Itchen. On the previous day 

 there had been a sparse skirmishing line of dark 

 olives on the water at 10.15, covering the main 

 advance at 11.30 ; but to-day 10.30, 11, 11.30, 

 noon, and the intervening quarters, chimed from 

 the belfry, without a fly showing on the water or 

 in the air. At noon the sun shone out for a few 

 moments, and made fitful reappearances at in- 

 tervals till 1.30. Strolling slowly and watchfully 

 up the bank, with an eye on the far side, the 

 angler came upon Keeper Humphrey in atten- 

 dance on another angler, and, on his advice, put 

 up a Red Quill on a No. hook, for lack of one a 

 size larger, and, leaving the other a couple of 

 hundred yards below, sat down to wait for the rise. 

 At length a little upwinged dun was seen in sail 

 in the glass edge, hugging the far bank as close as 

 possible. For a few yards it staggered down, 

 battered by the gale, and then slid sideways 



