68 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



The wet-fly fisherman does not as a general rule 



wait for a rising fish, but places 

 Method of fishing his fly or flies (he frequently 



sunk fly. uses two, three, or even four) 



in a part of the river where, 

 from his experience of the habits of the trout, he 

 would expect a feeding fish to be located. Some 

 fish upstream, some downstream, and some across the 

 stream. In the hands of a ^past-master it is a most 

 scientific and, under favourable conditions, a very 

 deadly method of fishing. 



The expression chalk-stream will occur frequently 



in this book, and it is well 

 Chalk-streams. that the reader should clearly 



understand its meaning. The 

 word chalk-stream refers to streams which have 

 their sources in springs deep down in the earth, 

 and from which the water rises to the surface 

 through a considerable thickness of chalk, being 

 thus filtered and freed from any visible particles of 

 solid matter held in suspension. These chalk-streams 

 abound in different parts of Great Britain. In my 

 own limited experience I have seen several in Hamp- 

 shire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Kent, Derbyshire, 

 Staffordshire, and Yorkshire, and very probably they 

 exist in other counties as well. 



The main characteristic of all chalk-streams is the 

 pellucid clearness of the water, which is, as a general 

 rule, unaffected by rain, except when unusually severe. 

 Even then the discolouration is often caused by road 



