THE FAERY YEAR 



chalk streams, the spawning season may prove bad. 

 Perhaps the trout cannot work in the gravel then 

 with good effect ; or the eggs, when laid, may be 

 washed away by the force of the water. To pre- 

 pare the spawning bed is no light task. A pair 

 of trout will work for weeks on a gravel bed, 

 scooping out a barrowful of gravel. Half a dozen 

 pairs of trout working on the same bed will throw 

 back a cartload of gravel, which is banked up just 

 like the earth at the entrance of a newly-made 

 rabbit burrow. When they have thrown out enough 

 gravel, penetrating the bed of the river about 

 six inches, the trout spawn, and then work down 

 over the eggs the gravel that lies just above the 

 top end of the bed. In this process, as, perhaps, 

 to a less extent in scooping out the hollow, the 

 fish are helped by the action of the current. Even 

 so, the work is far from light. The trout rarely 

 or never makes its spawning beds in sand or fine 

 gravel. It works out the hollows among the coarse, 

 heavy gravel, and it is surprising what large stones 

 are loosened from the river bed and pushed aside 

 or backwards. The trout has a very hard snout, 

 as shown by the way in which it butts a rival 

 without suffering discomfort therefrom ; but I do 

 not think the snout is much used for digging the 

 spawning beds. This work seems to be done by 

 the body, which is plunged and rolled in the gravel. 

 Not all the larger flints, which the trout has to 

 move before the spawning bed is ready, are round 

 and smooth as pebbles on the beach. Many have 

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