150 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



passing through the earth affect fish more than is generally- 

 supposed. On another occasion everything seems against 

 him to begin with, but he gets as many fish as he can cany ! 

 Let me mention a striking instance of the latter experience 

 and of the strange caprice of trout. On an April morning 

 some years ago a friend and myself started on foot from 

 Wells to fish the water above the Mill not far from Wokey 

 Hole in the Mendip Hills. It was very cold, and we had 

 only just got out of the city when a driving snow-storm 

 nearly blinded us. Before we got to Wokey we ex- 

 perienced two more, and on each occasion we debated 

 whether it were worth while to proceed. But the storms 

 were of brief duration, the sun was soon out again, and 

 hope, which " springs eternal " in the angler's breast, 

 predominated over fear. Another and worse storm just 

 as we got to the water almost determined us to return to 

 Wells. However, hoping against hope, we put our rods 

 together, and began casting with " kill-devils " (double 

 red palmers with two hooks) as stretchers and black 

 palmers as droppers. Not a fish was moving, nor could 

 we move one for the half-hour we whipped the water. It 

 was now, as we thought, utterly hopeless to persevere. 

 We would pack up and at once make tracks homewards ; 

 when suddenly another snow-storm was on us. Why I 

 made another cast under such circumstances I hardly 

 know, but I did, and at once a fish was securely attached 

 to my " kill-devil." But surely it was an accident ! The 

 fish could never have intended it ! It would be meaning- 

 less to cast again in a snow-storm ! But before I had 

 time to come to a conclusion, my friend had a fish on ; and 

 it was at once evident that a change had come over the 

 spirit of the dreams of the Wokey trout. They were 



