CLEAR WATERS 



inhabits Haweswater, among other lakes, must catch 

 something of the froHcsome temperament of its 

 cousins ; for on my only day there, when I did fill 

 my basket, I hooked one, and was disappointed at 

 not landing it. I remember well, as it leaped out of 

 the water with its red and gold colouring, an instan- 

 taneous flash of memory carried me back over the long 

 years to the trout streams of the Alleghanies. This 

 is merely worthy of remark on account of an ancient 

 controversy whether the American brook-trout is or 

 is not a species of char. I had never before seen one 

 except in that potted condition familiar to all Lake- 

 landers, and did not know at the time that Hawes- 

 water contained any, and American trouting was 

 assuredly miles from my thoughts at the moment. 

 Why Haweswater should be the complete antithesis 

 in this matter of free rising of its great neighbour 

 UUswater in almost the next valley, who shall say ? 

 Why, again, the fish should rise less freely in the smaller 

 higher lakes that lie between them is another problem. 

 Of these last I never fail to devote two or three 

 days to Angle tarn and Hayeswater. They are curi- 

 ously different in all respects save that of a common 

 solitude, though but a mile apart. Angle tarn lies 

 in a shallow shelf, high up near the top of rolling fells. 

 It is a broken, angular square, covering some twenty 

 acres, peat coloured and not very deep. Its sides are 

 low cliffs or boggy flats, and its trout, running nearly 

 three to the pound, though dark coloured and a trifle 

 soft on the table, fight like tigers. The near sur- 

 roundings of the actual cup in which the lake lies do 

 not, as here bluntly set down, sound inspiring. But 

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