An Angler's Paradise. 21 



A great deal has been said and written about the water area 

 of the globe, but when we take into consideration the water 

 facility which we posses in Britain, and realize that it is a great 

 motive power which may be turned to excellent account, the 

 wonder will be that it has been so long allowed to run idly down 

 our hill sides, and along our valleys, where it might have been 

 made, by means of a little ingenuity and engineering skill, to do 

 good work in far more ways than one. I have briefly described 

 a portion of a natural mountain or moorland stream, and nearly 

 everyone who makes any pretence at trout fishing, is acquainted 

 with such a stream in some shape or other. It may be a dashing 

 mountain torrent, careering along over its rocky and boulder 

 bestrewn bed through wastes of heather ; or perhaps at a lower 

 elevation, it may be passing more sluggishly between earthy banks 

 cut through a fertile tract of country ; but it is still the same in one 

 respect it is a trout stream. Everyone who has been accustomed 

 to frequent the banks of such a stream needs not to be reminded 

 how, in a great many instances, trout of any size are rare. The 

 stream may be replenished by the introduction of other and better 

 breeds, and although this undoubtedly does good, it is necessary 

 that other things be equal, or the result often discourages rather 

 than otherwise, a matter on which I shall have more to say in my 

 next chapter. But by dealing with the motive power which 

 Nature has provided, and making a series of artificial pools which 

 may be kept under absolute control, the stream containing only 



and can testify to the destruction that may be wrought with such a deadly engine when in 

 improper hands. In private or enclosed waters the matter is now fortunately very different, 

 and several good stiff penalties have been imposed. The case then becomes one of stealing, 

 and will carry a very much higher penalty than that inflicted for poaching. In many cases 

 which come under the latter head, absolute encouragement of the crime has resulted from 

 the absurdly inadequate fines which have been imposed. I have known cases of men who 

 have made a living by poaching, and who, when caught once in a while, have been fined a 

 few shillings, and have within a few hours not only made up the fine, but a good deal more, 

 by the plunder which they have obtained on another robbing expedition. In the interest of 

 the men themselves, the sooner such practices are put a stop to the better. In a case which 

 was brought before the Sheriff at Forfar of a man stealing fish from a private pond, evidence 

 was given shewing that a certain proprietor had stocked the pone, v, ith trout. In such a case 

 the trout, having been put into an enclosed piece of water, are as much the property of the 

 owner as a flock of sheep, and this should be made widely known. The Sheriff said that the 

 case involved a curious point in law. Under some circumstances, a person found fishing for 

 trout could not be charged with theft ; but amid the circumstances connected with the par- 

 ticular case, anyone who caught fish in the pond without the proprietor's sanction committed 

 theft in the same way as if he stole the trout from a bowl. 



