type was with a long line, longer patience, and a dry
fly. The sport with small lake flies, which was the usual method, was
amongst singularly beautiful brown trout of 1 lb. average. All,
therefore, was not yet lost, and the fishing, even in the lake which
had to the extent I have explained suffered a certain deterioration,
would be what many of us might, without sin, covet. When the angling
was in its prime 1,500 trout was the bag expected and generally
realised in a season, and, caught on small lake flies, such a number
assuredly signifies much satisfaction. The minnows, frogs,
miscellaneous Crustacea, and other foodstuffs in the lake then began to
institute a standing veto against such a degree of pleasure. But the
fishing of the upper lake, where we found our most joyous sport and
surroundings in 1901, seemed to be as good as ever, save that the trout
had fallen to a half-pound average.

One must conclude as one began by wondering what happened at Epioux.
The chateau, in the distance, might, after all, have filled the eye of
the enemy so effectually that the pretty little chalet was overlooked.
They tell you in the district that Prince Napoleon fled there for
safety after he had shot Victor Noir, and that some of the cannon for
Waterloo were cast in its immediate neighbourhood.

This chapter would have ended with the previous paragraph but for a
scrap of characteristic news in the _Daily Chronicle_. Many of the
reports of brutalities and wanton outrage in war time should be
received with distrust, but Mr. Naylor, who telegraphed this story from
Paris was an old journalistic comrade whom many a special-correspondent
expedition enables me to know as thoroughly reliable. He wrote:

"At Montdidier there is a great organisation which has for its object
the breeding of the best kinds of fish with which to stock French
rivers and lakes. As soon as the Germans came to Montdidier they
proceeded to blow up the banks of the fish-breeding ponds with
dynamite, and cover the streams with petroleum in order to kill all the
fish in them. They succeeded in destroying millions of immature trout
and other fish, and ruining completely a remunerative and useful
industry. The same spirit which drives such barbarians to blow up a
fish-breeding pond impels them to drop bombs on open towns, which do no
harm whatever to those who are fighting against them, but only kill
inoffensive women and children."

There are many good