TROUTING DAYS AND WAYS.* Am. readers who can appreciate what
Mr. A. G. Bradley calls "the mysterious magnetism of the stream" will find Clear Waters to be an extremely attractive book. Its author chats pleasantly about "trouting days and trouting ways" in many sacred haunts beside the Wiltshire Avon and the Devonshire Avon, the Welsh Dee and the chalky Kennet, the waters of Coder Idris and the lakes of Westmorland, the Scottish Whiteadder and the brown burns of Lauderdale. One of his most entertaining pages is that which describes the peculiarly British art of fishing from a coracle—or " cwrwgle " —as practised on the Dee near Llangollen. This prehistoric type of boat is made of wickerwork covered nowadays with tarpaulin, as formerly with hide—"a rough oblong, perhaps five feet long and half as wide, riding high in the water and pressed in a little at the waist, where a plank seat is stretched across" which accommodates both the pilot and his passenger. It is propelled by a short one-bladed paddle held under the armpit and worked with one hand, mainly under water, in a kind of figure-of-eight stroke. In this ticklish form of navigation Mr. Bradley had some good sport—though the game is not to be recommended to any brother of the angle who is not also thoroughly versed in the art of swimming with his clothes on.
Previous page
