376 ANGLING 



scenery in the neighbourhood of the stream was often 

 highly interesting. There was an admirable diversity 

 of woods, meadows, orchards, and villages. In some 

 places I passed, I stood for half an hour at a time, and 

 gazed upon the landscape with intense interest. When 

 fixed in this manner one laments the poverty of language : 

 even the pencil cannot represent that outward picture 

 which fills the eye and imagination, nor express those 

 confused, those delicious sounds of rural life, nor make 

 us breathe that fine air, which renders the spirits so 

 buoyant and lively. We feel the necessity of transport- 

 ing the reader to the very spot itself, and give up all 

 attempts to paint natural beauties which are inimitable. 



" At Turi I met with two French anglers, officers 

 of the army, who had been rambling on the river's banks 

 for two or three days. They had each a very fine 

 basket of trout, which they kept in a moist state, by 

 occasionally dipping it in the water. They showed 

 me the flies they were using ; and what ugly and 

 grotesque things they were ! They were full as large as 

 bumble-bees, and were very rudely tied on the gut. 

 Cast-lines they had none. They made a regular splash 

 at every throw of the line. Their great object was to 

 mark whenever a fish rose, and then to post off to the 

 spot, throw a little above the spot ; a mode of proceed- 

 ing often attended with success. I displayed my stock 

 of flies, at which they seemed quite astonished and 

 delighted. Being flne, agreeable, and gentlemanly men, 

 I begged they would accept half a dozen each of any 

 colour and size they fancied ; a proposition which was 

 politely accepted, and which united us into the closest 

 bonds of angling brotherhood. 



" Passing down the river to Vieux, I had some good 

 days' sport ; sometimes using the fly, sometimes the 

 minnow, and occasionally the worm, which, when the 

 weather is hot, the river low, and there is a goodly 

 portion of shady spots, near or over deep pools, is by 

 far the most interesting and exciting mode of anglmg. 

 It is often, likewise, the most successful mode. The 

 flies I used on this section of the Orne were of a 



