NATURAL HISTORY. 435 



especially if there should be little falls at intervals. The Der- 

 went and the Dove are particularly famous for their trout. 

 The latter river is quite the beau ideal of a trout stream. It 

 never seems to know its own mind for half a mile together. 

 Sometimes it is rapid, frisking over stones and round trees, and 

 throwing up the sparkling foam in all directions. Presently it 

 has changed into a silent, slow, melancholy river, with dark 

 pools of unknown depth, shaded by overhanging trees, and 

 suggestive of murders successfully concealed. Everywhere 

 are the trout. Lying quietly under the shelter of some large 

 stone, while the water is leaping round them, are the moder- 

 ate sized trout, darting off like meteors to snatch at a passing 

 fly, and as quickly returning to their concealment. In the 

 deeper pools are the large fish, who, too sagacious to be de- 

 ceived by the artfully made fly of the professed angler, yet 

 often fall victims to the less scientific but more successful 

 ploughboy.* 



The usual method of fishing for trout is with a fly, but 

 trolling with a minnow is often successfully used, nor does the 

 trout reject a well-selected and properly arranged worm. 



The brilliant speckled tints of this beautiful fish vary much 

 according to the locality and the time of year. In May the 

 fish assume their brightest colours and their most delicate 

 flavour. The size of the. fish also varies exceedingly, being 

 from half a pound in weight and about eight inches in length, 

 to ten or fifteen pounds weight. 



The Smelt belongs to this family, and in its progress to the 

 sea is destroyed in great quantities in mill-ponds, &c. 



* Several of my schoolboy years were spent near the banks of the Dove, which 

 river, of course, formed one of our favourite haunts. We were accustomed to take 

 the large trout by the rather unsportsmanlike, but very amusing method of " tickling." 

 It was excessively amusing to watch the angry countenances of London anglers, 

 who came to the Dove bedizened with all the appurtenances of rods, lines, baskets, 

 &c., and who, after whipping the water most perseveringly for the whole morning 

 without a single bite, while resting their tired arms, saw the country boys seated on 

 the bank, armed with a long stick and a line barely two feet long, adding every 

 minute to the heap of glittering fishes at their side. 



