WHITEADDER AND LAUDERDALE 



worthy of attention, I may say at once that in almost 

 any part of it baskets of from twelve to fifteen pounds 

 of trout are killed tolerably often in every season. 

 I fancy most of us are just a little more than content 

 if we are fortunate enough to stagger home under 

 so respectable a burden from any club, association, 

 or preserved water in the hill countries of England or 

 Wales ! I must hasten, however, to take the edge off 

 any justifiable scepticism of the southern reader by 

 affirming that the Whiteadder is the finest natural trout 

 stream of its class known to me in this island, though 

 the Cardiganshire Teifi may tug perhaps a little at 

 my conscience in giving utterance to this pious opinion. 

 But then the latter is mainly preserved, though against 

 this must be set the lamentable fact that nefarious 

 poachers abound in Wales. 



In south-eastern Scotland, on the other hand, if 

 rod fishermen are as legion, trout poaching, for that 

 very reason an anti-popular pursuit, is tolerably well 

 kept under. If I had to fish for a wager — which 

 Heaven forbid ! — and had the choice of the Teifi or 

 the Whiteadder, I should certainly choose the former, 

 merely as a preserved river, while the latter, judged by 

 a south country standard, is flogged to death. But this 

 estimate of the Whiteadder as the finest trout stream 

 known to me is formed on two accounts : — firstly, 

 as presenting a surface continuously and uninterrupt- 

 edly alluring to cast one's flies upon, and secondly, 

 for the astounding fertility which has resisted the 

 unchecked onslaught of generations of skilled anglers. 

 I should be inclined to think it possessed some magic 

 qualities, some supernatural fecundity, if it were not 



333 



