182 TROUT FISHING 



but that fluttering Mayfly, symbol of 

 summer at the noon and aU the green 

 world at the freshest intensity of throb- 

 bing life, had stirred him to a panic 

 happiness. Now, something of the same 

 joyous emotion comes at the sight of 

 a fly, with cocked wings floating, that 

 has been lightly cast where a great 

 fish is known to be on the look- 

 out. This I know full well. Still, as 

 we are endeavouring to treat the whole 

 subject in a scientific spirit, it is neces- 

 sary to point out that the delight is 

 not always unmitigated. Sometimes a 

 trout takes the floating fly ; but how 

 often does he rise and miss ? In my own 

 experience missing is the rule. Up comes 

 the trout, and down he goes ; but the fly 

 is where it was, on the surface. It is not 

 that I have missed the flsh. It is that 

 the fish has missed the fly. This is very 

 often what happens on a river, and it 

 almost invariably happens on a lake. 

 Were it not for an astonishing fact, which 

 I will mention immediately, it would 



