A DERBYSHIRE TROUT-STREAM. 183 



the noisy Derwent, we trace our mountain stream 

 gradually up the hills, its banks being fringed with 

 alders, and its bed comparatively smooth, except here 

 and there where a moss-grown boulder makes the water 

 boil and seethe and foam in mad career. Wild life, 

 animate and inanimate, in and on this mountain stream 

 is fraught with interest to him who cares to use his eyes 

 and ears. In the dark quiet pools where the water looks 

 almost as brown as peat, yet clear as crystal, the spotted 

 trout rises to the flies sporting on the surface, sometimes 

 leaping quite out of the stream and showing its gleaming 

 sides for a moment ; whilst in the rougher water the 

 grayling darts arrow-like under the rocks or overhanging 

 banks. The water rat or vole may often be seen sitting 

 on the opposite bank, curiously watching the intruder, or 

 dropping hurriedly down to swim along the margin of the 

 pool to a favourite hiding-place amongst the gnarled 

 roots of an old alder tree. The banks of the torrent are 

 clothed with luxuriant vegetation. Now dense thickets 

 of bramble or fern, already flecked and splashed with 

 carmine and gold ; then coarse grass through which the 

 blackberry loaded with clusters of jet black fruit trails 

 and creeps or hangs over the gray rocks, its lower shoots 

 washed by the surging stream. Higher up the hillsides 

 the alder trees are smaller ; and here and there a 

 mountain ash, decked in thick bunches of scarlet berries, 

 forms a pleasant contrast to surrounding tints. Birds of 



