CLEAR WATERS 



of her peal, the Dart of her scenic pre-eminence and 

 her fair share of sea-going fish, but the Avon in her 

 lower half may fairly, I think, take precedence of either 

 for the quality of her trout ; and that is what chiefly 

 concerns us in these pages. My own angling experi- 

 ences of the Dart are of such ancient date as to be 

 worth nothing in the matter of comparison. But an 

 old local friend who has fished both rivers almost 

 from his cradle has showed me his fishing journals 

 extending over many years by way of rubbing in the 

 contrast which, in these pages, at any rate, is con- 

 spicuous. The Dart in its upper reaches has long 

 miles of moorland waters which provide entertainment 

 for many visitors in the way of small fish, as fish are 

 judged even by the Devonshire standard, which is 

 another business. But in its wider and lower reaches 

 below Holne, in my friend's records, which have much 

 significance, it does not come near the Avon. Nor 

 are the Earne and the Teign, which also run south out 

 of Dartmoor, nor yet again the Okement, which runs 

 north, quite in the same class. 



But then the Avon is very short, the portion of it, 

 that is to say, to which these eulogies are applicable. 

 It rises, to be sure, far within the moor behind South 

 Brent, and in its pilgrimage out of the wild has a 

 right tempestuous journey, deep channelled in woody 

 gorges, and leaping betimes in high white cataracts 

 that cannot even be seen without effort for the tangled 

 foliage that meets above them. Running pictur- 

 esquely down past the rectory and church of Brent, 

 diving under stone bridges, and skirting the village, 

 the little river tumbles through open meadows for a 

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