THE TROUT. 151 



rising in all directions. At what, I cannot for the life of 

 me say, unless it were at a shower of flies which came 

 down with the snow, or perhaps they mistook the snow- 

 flakes for white moths ! We had a fish at almost every 

 cast, sometimes two, as long as the snow-storm lasted ; 

 but when it ceased, the fish at once ceased rising. To 

 make a long story short, there was a succession of brief 

 snow-storms all the day. During their continuance, the 

 fish rose fast and furiously ; in the intervals between them 

 not a fish would rise. If I were to give the numbers of 

 the fish we caught, I might lay myself open to the charge 

 of exaggeration, which is sometimes brought against the 

 angling community ; suffice it to say, that never before 

 and never since have I had a hand in catching such a 

 dish of fish ; rather I should say " dishes," for on our 

 return to Wells almost every dish on the establishment 

 had to be requisitioned in order that we might fully display 

 our take. There was hardly a fish below \ lb., the average 

 was 1 lb., and several scaled l|lb. and over. 



A remarkable instance, though only another out of 

 very many I could give, of what seems the caprice of trout 

 in rising, came under my notice when fishing the Exe 

 about four miles above Tiverton. I had been diligently 

 whipping from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m., trying a variety of 

 flies and a variety of miscellaneous devices in casting and 

 working my cast ; but not a fish had I moved, nor had I 

 seen above half a dozen rises ; when suddenly the stretch 

 of water I was on became literally alive with fish rising. 

 I forget the particular flies I had on my cast, but I know 

 that the fish seemed quite indifferent as to which they 

 took, and I basketed them almost as fast as I did the 

 Wokey trout in the snow-storms. But in about half an 



