THE WIND 43 



For all the chill that it contains, it might 

 as well be coming from the Solent. It is 

 not preventing the eggs of the insects 

 from being hatched. If one looks care- 

 fully, it will be seen that the flies are 

 certainly on the water. 



Why, then, are the trout not rising ? 

 The question has never been answered 

 satisfactorily. All we know is that even 

 a draught from the east or from the north 

 puts the fish down, and that they are likely 

 to stay down until the setting of the sun. 

 Even then their mood will not change 

 unless the wind faints away under a clear 

 sky. That, fortunately, often happens 

 in summer ; and then, during the cool 

 fresh hour between sundown and the 

 dark, the trout usually rise well. 



The brisk sport enlivening that hour 

 is so familiar that most of us have no 

 thought of how astonishing it is. It 

 comes when the atmosphere is still. 

 Should it not, then, cause us to revise the 

 understanding that in daytime we must 

 have a breeze and a ripple if the trout are 



