48 TROUT FISHING 



they are afraid of the stillness and the 

 gloom : often they come on freely in the 

 middle of a dark and silent night. May 

 it not be that they remain down because, 

 like the birds of the air, the beasts of the 

 field, and mankind, fish are made sluggish 

 by certain conditions of the atmosphere ? 

 Soon after the storm has come, often 

 when it is at the height of its rage and 

 rattle, the trout rush at the flies as reck- 

 lessly as any fisherman could desire. Of 

 this, surely, the natural explanation is 

 that they have been relieved of depres- 

 sion by the change which has been 

 wrought in the atmosphere by lightning. 



Even when there is no " thunder in the 

 air," the angler, especially if he be on a 

 lake, where causes and effects are more 

 broadly manifest than they are on a river 

 will sometimes have experiences which 

 point to the same conclusion. The calm 

 of many a day is modified by puffs of 

 wind ; but if the trout do not rise in the 

 hours of calm they do not rise in the 

 minutes of ripple. The wind has not 



