The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-15

CT gFuDS or similar tit-DltS. You VIII find a good many trout there. The larg:st is poised close to where the tributary joins the stream; the second largest is a foot or so behind him: the third-lal gest at a similar distance from the second: and so on in diminishing vigilance of the first trout, and you VII understand. Sc. hm snapping at the juiciest gru3s and rising at the most attractive flies. How alert ne is, and Tavenous, He is nearest the entrance of the tributary because in that posi- ton he has first chOce of the, good things it is bearing down. For what he leaves, the others, in their turns, are on the lookout. If any of these sought to usurp the place of the first fish there would be battle and rout. Indeed, if you hook the first, the second will be established in his hover long before you need the landing-net. Does this lesson in the ways of trout shed light on the uniformity in the sze of fish by which basket is so often character ized? If every trout in your creei Is large. may it not be because, although
 
 to feed, the larger ones, being in par- ticular good appetite, bore themselves, towards the files floating or fiuttering down, in a number that intimidated the youngsters? A more minute inYestiga- tiOn will reveal omething Ike a crouch ing fright among the small trout when the great fish are thoroughly lon the feed" They may rise now and then, but in doing so they are careful never to be in the big ones way.
 Now and then. however, there comes a day the experience of which has per- plexed every wiefder of the fiy-rod. Trout after trout rises; but not one is caught. You look to see whether the hooks are right, and find no explana- tion. There is not the slightest doubt about the rises. You see the breaks in the water You feel the jerks at the line. How is it possible that time af- ter time fish can take such a risk and never pay the penalty? They are iris ing short!'' That is the accepted phrass. It suggests it's own meaning. If they rose little less short, we are to understand, they would be hooked. They are merely snapping at the wings of the flies, and so escaping. Why they should snap at the wings, or how they can do it with such accuracy, is not al- ways mentioned; but there is a theory. It is believed to be possible that some peculiarity of the light may dshect the vision of the fish; that their aim is up- set, that they just miss flies which they really mean to siege. This sounds plausible: but 1t cannot be considered satisfactory. The tugs at the line are so palpable that they could not possi- bly be produced by contact of the trout's teeth with the soft wings of the lures. The steel also must be in some contact with the fish. What contact? I think that, instead of being in the mouths of the trout, it is with some other part of them. This notion arose one day when, after many short rises and no fish, landed one lassoed by the tail. The hook had looped itself with the gut, and the trout was fast, in fa- vor of the surmise I have ventured is the consideration that sometimes, al- though feeding busily, the fish are pay ing no attention to flies on the surface. In the position of 8 .sulkng salmon, which is tail-up and head-down, they are preyng upon flies. or other insects matching at the bottom of the water. Is it not easily conceivable that, al- though they are ignoring the full fiedged flies and your own limitations, they may frequently, by accident, strike against the hooks, which scratch though they do not hold? Trout are sometimes in a strange humor that may have a similar result. They try to drown flies that they see on the sur face. They leap up and sometimes out, and strike the insects with their tails. This proceeding I have witnessed three or four times. Why the fish should wish to drown the flies, which rise again as quickly as fragments of cork, it is not easy to tell; but that they do try occasionally is beyond question.
 In practically all emergencies the trout is strikingly sagacious. The peril of drought which he miraculously sur wives in the Yorkshire becks is hardly greater than risk which he frequent ly runs from flood. Quarter of mile from where these words are being writ ten is river that is not infrequently obliterated. Heavy rains set in upon the mountains, inch by inch the stream, which has it's source in great lake, begins to rise; within twelve | hours it is overf1owing here and there
 If the storm lasts two days more, the valley, half mile broad, is under wa ter. Only the railway, near the middle | is to be seen. If they have journey | to make, villagers must get to the sta | tion In a boat. Sheep, rabbits and oth- | CT creatures on the meadows are in ter TOT, and many of them are swept away At the last flood a herd of Shetland po- nies found themselves surrounded by | the rising water. Their plight was pit | fable, They neighed and screamed \ Only few contrived to stand theil ground. The others perished. Wher | the flood comes, man, though he has l been familiar with these parts for cen l turies, is helpless. He cannot ever save his cattle or his harvest. The very earth itself succumbs. The banks break, and thousands of tons of soil art | carried down the river. Gazing upor | the turbulent waste of waters, the roal