60 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING. 



number and form of the spots thereon ; the form of 

 the tail, forked or even, and the hke, he found were not 

 to be depended on, — and hence the various names of 

 common trout, sea trout, salmon trout, alpine trout, 

 and numerous others, apply only to differences arising 

 from sex, age, season, the character of the waters, and 

 the sorts of food which they can procure. These 

 differences, however, are often very considerable, even 

 among trouts in the same waters, or at least in the 

 mountain brooks and the rivers into which these brooks 

 run, as I have observed myself, when angling, in nu- 

 merous instances, and as is well known to every 

 angler. 



Spawnhig, Seasons, and Haunts of Trout. 



It is of much importance for the angler to attend to 

 the spawning time of trout, as, contrary to what 

 occurs in other fish, it is never good when about to 

 spawn, but in some rivers, such as, according to 

 Bowlker, the Arrow in Herefordshire, the Teme in 

 Radnorshire, and Clunwater, Shropshire, there are 

 barren females which continue good all the winter. 



In some rivers, trouts begin to spawn in October, 

 but November is the chief month of spawning. 

 About the end of September they quit the deep water, 

 to which they had retired during the hot weather, and 

 make great efforts to gain the course of the currents, 

 and seek out a proper place for depositing their roe. 

 This is always done on a gravelly bottom, or where 

 gravel and sand are mixed among stones, near the tails 



