280 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



it the " flower of fishes." Aubrey in his MS. said that in his days the umber was 

 caught in the INfadder, between Wilton and Salisbury, &c. " This kind of fish 

 (he remarked) is found in no other river in England except the Humber in York- 

 shire. From that river, therefore, 1 conclude it takes its name of umher " (Maton, 

 Nat. Hist, of Wilts.). Cotton, however, says this name is derived from its being 

 very black about the head and gills and down the back, and has its belly of a dark 

 gray dappled with black when in the season. One-year-old fish are in some places 

 kno\vn as pinks, at about i lb. weight shot or sJnot, or those not breeding. Graij- 

 ling or graxol is another name for grilse in Lough Foyle, Ireland {J. Johnstone). 

 Brithyll rhesfrog and Glasgavgen, Welsh. De Vlagmlm, Dutch. Omhre, French. 

 This fish is another whose introduction has been ascribed to the monks, and 

 many of the local grayling fisheries are found in the vicinity of where monasteries 

 formerly stood, as in the Ure near the site of the Jervaulx Abbey. But it would 

 be diflicult to convey this fish from the continent with the means then at their 

 disposal ; while in Kent, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, where there were 

 many monasteries, grayling ai'e not found, also it is only this century they have 

 been introduced into Scotland, while they have not yet been acclimatized in 

 Ireland, but their propagation there is about to be tried. 



Habits. — Although found in many of our rivers, and in some abundantly, the 

 grayling is certainly a local fish, while at times it appears to be gregarious, 

 showing a tendency to congregate in small shoals, which often drop down 

 stream. In this country it would appear to be strictly fluviatile and fresh-water 

 in its habits, never migrating to the sea; but in Scandinavia it is found in lakes 

 also in the North Sea, Cattegat, and Baltic. Sir Humphry Davy tried it in 

 brackish water but without success. It prefers clear streams, in which there are 

 a succession of sluggish pools and shallows, with sandy, gravelly, or loamy beds, 

 rocky or stony bottoms being unsuitable.* The larger ones seem to resort more to 

 the deeper and quiet spots, the moderately-sized and small ones to the shallows, 

 taking their post behind a rock or a bunch of weeds. Although clear streams are 

 preferred, still a moderate or cold temperature of the water seems to be of 

 more consequence, but too much cold or too much heat are asserted to be equally 

 fatal to it. It is not every river that appears suited for the grayling, thus the 

 attempts to acclimatize it in the Thames do not appear, so far, to have been a 

 success, although a few have been captured there. It lives somewhat deeper in 

 the water than the trout,t and although in some streams the two forms reside 

 together on not unfriendly terms, should food be abundant, such is not invariably 

 the case, as in some localities it is popularly said to bully the trout :| it may be 



* Dr. Hamilton says, " that grayling require rivers that are rather sluggish than swift, with 

 deep pools connected by moderate rapids, subject to no very great fluctuations either as regards 

 volume of water or temperature, and running through limestone districts is far from being the 

 right one. No grayling grows to such a size or increase faster than those in our chalk streams ; 

 and no river fluctuates and changes its condition as regards volume of water more than the 

 Teme." 



t Although it has been asserted that grayling do not feed upon the eggs of the trout {gee 

 p. 207 note ante), Mr. Currell (Fialiing Gazette, March 6th, 1886) observed, " I have seen a shoal 

 of grayling following the spawning trout and digging up the gravel, and have seen the trout rush 

 open-mouthed at them and drive them off again and again." 



I The secretary to a Glaafiow Aufilinij Chih once wrote asking how to destroy grayling, as since 

 their introduction the trout tishing had very much decreased. In other localities, as the Windrush 

 in Gloucestershire, theCorve in Shropshire, etc., the two forms do not aj^pear to interfere with one 

 another. A correspondent of The Field (March 24th, 1883) observed, " Last August I had a few 

 days' fishing on the Kennet. I was greatly interested in the history of the Hungerford Club, and 

 one of the secretaries (with whom I was fishing) furnished me with the following facts, giving me 

 full permission to make them public. In 1877, when the club was formed, the water contained a 

 limited stock of very large trout, which were rarely caught except in the May-fly season, but it 

 swarmed with coarse fish of all sorts. A war of extermination was commenced at once, and it 

 has been so systematically kept up ever since, that up to the present time the club has killed 2745 

 pike, and 8273 other coarse fish on their own fishery ; and, on the water immediately below this, 

 ()96 pike, and about 2000 coarse fish of other kinds. This in itself is a wonderfully good work, 

 but it is not all, for in 1879 fifteen brace of half-pound grayling were introduced from theDerwent, 

 together with 2000 fry. The experiment has been watched with much interest, and each periodical 

 netting has given evidence that the new stock is rapidly taking root. The wide, extensive shallow 

 above and below the town bridge at Hungerford is the perfection of grayling water ; and all down 



