ARE TROUT CUNNING? 143 



said the dandy, " I don't know its name. 

 You go to it from Waterloo." Similarly, 

 we went to the stream from Waterloo. 

 It flows, westward, through a valley in 

 Hampshire. The weather was excellent. 

 As we were putting up the rods, a slaty- 

 hlue cloud, tinged in its lower surface as 

 if with smoke, sat high and motionless in 

 the north-west. Soon a wind roared 

 over the hills, and we were pelted for ten 

 minutes with snow of a strange dryness. 

 That was not altogether a bad omen. 

 When the cloud had spent its fury it 

 would leave the valley swathed in stillness 

 and sunshine. 



It did ; but, unfortunately, there was 

 no hatch of any fly. We did not see a 

 single " natural rise " all day ; yet we 

 caught here and there a trout. That is 

 a matter for wonder ; but it is not inex- 

 plicable. The lady, I noticed, was very 

 slow in her movement up the stream. 

 She was not content with one cast over 

 any likely place. Cast after cast, to the 

 number of at least a dozen, she made 



