62 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN 



waters, and, again, a few miles above Bolton Abbey, the 

 sport is good. 



We will, for a moment, take the Bolton Abbey water as 

 a general type of the river in which grayling will thrive. 

 Towards the end of October the yellow and brown leaves are 

 beginning to scatter before the blast, and their presence in 

 the stream is sometimes almost as much a nuisance to the 

 angler as the disgusting little midgelet, not inaptly called 

 "the angler's curse," is in summer time to the trout fisher. 

 The fall of the leaf and activity amongst grayling men are 

 synonymous. At the wider end of our limit, we begin with 

 a long stretch of shallow water rippling at the uniform depth 

 of a foot over amber-coloured pebbles and gravels. Here 

 you would naturally expect to take trout in the early part 

 of the year ; but you would waste your time in whipping 

 for grayling. Wait until you pass through into the next 

 field ; there you will find that the river takes a sudden 

 swerve to the right, flowing deep at the bottom of the 

 woods opposite, and washing up at your feet, as you stand 

 by the brink on your own side, from a shelf which gradually 

 slopes to the deepest part. At the upper end of the curve, 

 there is something in the nature of a fall, caused by large 

 blocks of boulder, and in the very eye of the sharp stream 

 formed by them, you may make certain of a rise. Also in 

 the smooth gliding water, five or six feet deep, though it 

 may be in the bend of the curve, you should, with red 

 tag, or a tiny floating dun, or one of those queer little 

 spiders in fashion in the district, pick out your pound 

 orayling ; while at the tail of the stream where it escapes 

 in an oily fashion from the depth of the pool is another 

 favourite haunt. 



In Dovedale, again, is a noted grayling water, to which 

 disciples of Walton and Cotton devote loyal pilgrimages. 



