CLEAR WATERS 



that his entomology was as simple and concentrated 

 as it proved effective. And as I always took care to 

 use the same flies as he did, this impression is no doubt 

 a sound one. 



But to return to Ullswater ; if there were only the 

 lake to fish in the rod would occupy a much less 

 prominent place in my memories of past visits, and 

 in my dreams of, I trust, more to come. Many good- 

 sized becks run into the lake, invaluable as spawning- 

 grounds for the latter, but poor in themselves in 

 regard both to the number and size of their fish ; 

 the lovely little river Goldrill which descends from 

 the Kirkstone pass through Brotherswater, and 

 thence in glittering coils down the green trough of 

 Patterdale, taking the first place in volume. Then 

 there are the Grisedale and Aira becks, the latter the 

 best of all in its higher waters above the famous falls. 

 Then there are the considerable becks which, rising 

 in the High Street, run down through the various 

 dales of Martindale deer forest to Howtown Bay. 

 These are greatly used as spawning-grounds by the lake 

 trout, who run up them by thousands in the autumn. 

 For themselves they carried and probably still carry 

 the usual stock of eight-to-the-pounders. The best 

 native fisherman at Howtown tells me he has not killed 

 a trout of a pound weight in any of them in forty-five 

 years ! Nor from the nature of them and their lack 

 of food could anything else be expected. But in the 

 summer-time the mountain tarns are, to me at any 

 rate, infinitely more attractive. Cateris paribus, I 

 would sooner fish a stream than a lake any day. But 

 I would much sooner fish a lake two thousand feet 



264 



