SPECKLED TROUT. 115 



at home I deny. If you wish to learn all 

 about the race in its own life you must abjure 

 rod and line, and creep quietly to the side of 

 the pools in an unfished brooklet, like this on 

 whose bank I am now seated ; and then, if 

 you have taken care not to let your shadow 

 fall upon the water, you may sit and watch 

 the live fish themselves for an hour together, 

 as they bask lazily in the sunlight, or rise now 

 and then at cloudy moments with a sudden 

 dart at a May-fly who is trying in vain to lay 

 her eggs unmolested on the surface of the 

 stream. The trout in my little beck are for- 

 tunately too small even for poachers to care 

 for tickling them : so I am able entirely to 

 preserve them as objects for philosophical 

 contemplation, without any danger of their 

 being scared away from their accustomed 

 haunts by intrusive anglers. 



Trout always have a recognised home of 

 their own, inhabited by a pretty fixed number 

 of individuals. But if you catch the two sole 

 denizens of a particular scour, you will find 



I 2 



