CLASSES OF CONDITIONS 137 



object is visible at a great distance. Looking down 

 on the bed of the river it will be noticed that every 

 weed-patch, every stone and, in fact, all objects 

 including the fish, can be seen and are painfully 

 visible from afar. It would appear that just as the 

 fish and other objects in the water are plainly seen 

 from the bank, so the fisherman and his rod are 

 equally plainly seen from the river by the fish. In 

 this light fish seldom if ever rise well either at the 

 natural insects, if they are present, or at their imita- 

 tions. 



Bright sunshine is not as a rule favourable to the 

 dry-fly man, and on a day of fleeting clouds, which 

 at times obscure the sun's rays and at others allow 

 them to fall with full brilliancy on the river, the past- 

 master will invariably wait for a cloudy interval to 

 cast his fly over the rising trout. This subject is 

 treated more in detail in the next chapter, " The 

 Psychological Moment." 



The third class of favourable and unfavourable 



conditions, those appertaining 



Favourable and un- to the nature of the place and 



favourable places. its surroundings, will require 



very careful and prolonged 

 study. I invite the reader's best attention to two 

 plans of stretches of the Test which have been pre- 

 pared to illustrate and explain my views on the 

 subject, Plate X representing a shallow, and Plate 

 XI showing a deep hole and the flow of water into 

 and out of it. These are not fancy sketches, but 



