THE WIND 45 



times falls while the sun is high ; yet, 

 whilst they rise freely in a calm at the 

 one time, they do not rise at all in a 

 calm at the other. It would appear, 

 then, that the ripple is not in itself the 

 condition of good sport during the day- 

 light. 



May it be that the ripple is only a 

 symptom of the condition ? Can it be 

 that the wind, which causes the ripple, 

 causes also a state of the water in which 

 the fish become lively and disposed to 

 feed ? This suggestion may at first be 

 flouted ; but before discarding it anglers 

 should take note that their craft, though 

 of great antiquity, is one which has made 

 extraordinarily little progress. The main 

 principles of the sport have for centuries 

 been accepted by generation after genera- 

 tion in unreflective acquiescence. This 

 is so markedly the case that, although 

 accustomed to speaking of trout in cer- 

 tain waters as "wary," or "cunning," or 

 "sophisticated," we who wield the rod 

 hardly ever suppose that the fish are 



