148 TROUT FISHING 



conditions of sport are exceedingly com- 

 plex, and only on very rare occasions 

 arranged exactly in favour of the angler. 

 The angler is not the sole creature whom 

 Nature has to consider. If there were 

 always wind to make a curl on the water, 

 the flowers and the fruits of the fields 

 would he robbed of some of the warmth 

 which the sun offers to their needs ; if the 

 clouds never settled and thickened until 

 the whole earth seemed shrouded in a 

 gray pall, depressing to trout and fisher- 

 man alike, there could be no rain, and 

 vegetation would be impossible ; "snow- 

 brew" floods are inevitable, because a 

 mantle of snow is the means by which the 

 winter frosts are prevented from penetrat- 

 ing too far into the soil. When one 

 comes to think of them, all the pheno- 

 mena of our sport are clearly in the woof 

 of a system which seems to be of design. 

 If it were not that the trout are put 

 beyond our reach by falling aloof at the 

 touch of natural conditions which are 

 very common, one of two great mis- 



