CHAP, iv.] THE TKOUT. 133 



the primrose grow into blossom almost as he looks at them ; 

 hear the sweet notes of the cuckoo, and the unceasing carol of 

 noisier birds; watch the sportive lamb or the timid hare; and 

 chronicle the ever-changing seasons as they roll away on their 

 everlasting journey of progress. 



Without pretending to rival the hundred and one guides 

 to angling that now flood the market, I shall take a glance at 

 a few of the more popular of the anglers' fishes ; not, however., 

 in any scientific or other order of precedence, but beginning 

 with the trout, seeing that the salmon is discussed in a 

 separate division of this work. 



Of all our fresh-water fishes, the one that is most plentiful, 

 and the one that is most worthy of notice by anglers, is the 

 trout. It can be fished for with the simplest possible kind of 

 rod in the most tiny stream, or be captured by elaborate 

 apparatus on the great lochs of Scotland. There are so many 

 varieties of it as to suit all tastes ; there are well-flavoured 

 burn trout, not so large as a small herring, and there are lake 

 giants that, when placed in the scales, will pull down a twenty 

 pound weight with the greatest ease. The usual run of river 

 trout are about six or eight ounces in weight ; a pound trout 

 is an excellent reward for the patient angler. Where a 

 trouting stream flows through a rich and fertile district of 

 country, with abundant drainage, the trout are usually well- 

 conditioned and large, and of good flavour ; but when the 

 country through which the stream flows is poor and rocky, 

 with no drains carrying in food to enrich the stream, the fish 

 will, as a matter of course, be lanky and flavourless ; they may 

 be numerous, but they will be of small size. It is curious, too, to 

 note the difference of the fish of the same stream : some of the 

 trout taken in Tweed, and in other rivers as well, are sharp 

 in their colour, have fine fat plump thick shoulders, great 

 depth of belly, and beautiful pink flesh of excellent flavour ; 

 others again are lean and flavourless. The colour of trout is 



