BKVBKTH DAT.J GRAYLING. 175 



grayling require a peculiar character in the disposition 

 of the water of rivers. They do not dwell, like trout, 

 in rapid shallow torrents ; nor, like charr or chub, in 

 deep pools or lakes. They require a combination of 

 stream and pool ; they like a deep still pool for rest, 

 and a rapid stream above, and a gradually declining 

 shallow below, and a bottom where marl or loam is 

 mixed with gravel ; and they are not found abundant 

 except in rivers that have these characters. It is 

 impossible to have a more perfect specimen of a 

 grayling river than that now running before us, in this 

 part of its course. You see a succession of deep still 

 pools under shady banks of marl, with gentle rapids 

 above, and a long shelving tail, where the fish sport 

 and feed. Should there be no such pools in a river, 

 grayling would remain, provided the water was clear, 

 and would breed ; but they cannot stem rapid streams, 

 and they are gradually carried down lower and lower, 

 and at last disappear. You know the Test, one of 

 the finest trout streams in Hampshire, and of course 

 in England ; when I first knew this stream, twenty 

 years ago, there were no grayling in it. A gentleman 

 brought some from the Avon, and introduced them 

 into the river at Longstock, above Stockbridge. 

 They were for two or three years very abundant in 

 that part of the river ; but they gradually descended, 

 and though they multiplied greatly, there are now 



