40 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



his head was formerly black and of a large size. He 

 regularly came, when summoned by his master by the 

 name of ' Ned,' to feed from his hand on snails, worms, 

 and bread. This remarkable fish has been visited, and 

 considered a curiosity by the neighbouring country, for 

 several years." 



The progress of trout towards maturity has also been 

 a fruitful topic of discussion, and indeed remains undecided 

 at the present hour. Some contend that they grow com- 

 paratively quickly; others, on the contrary, maintain the 

 opposite notion, and affirm that their growth is singularly 

 slow. For our own part, we conceive them to be fish of 

 slow growth; and we also imagine that many of them 

 never attain any great size. We advance this opinion on 

 the strength of two or three general facts, which have 

 been repeatedly verified during an experience of thirty 

 years' standing, and which also may be tested by the ex- 

 perience of every inquisitive and observing angler, who 

 will direct his attention to the subject. 



In the first place, in really good trout-streams, you will 

 always find year after year the great mass of the fish nearly 

 about the same size, no matter in what particular year you 

 angle, or what kind of bait you use. We could name twenty 

 trout-streams in England and Scotland, where ten out of 

 every twelve fish caught in all seasons, will be within an 

 ounce weight of each other. Now this uniformity among 

 such numerous tribes can only be accounted for, on the 

 supposition that they are of slow growth, and remain long 

 stationary at the same size. If there were always a pro- 

 gressive increase going on, even according to the most 

 moderate scale of advance, we should not find this 

 uniformity; but we should see trout of all sizes, and this, 

 too, in -regular and equal proportions. 



