i88 



SUMMER 



Trout may vary almost as greatly within a few score yards of 

 each other in the same river or lake, and the controlling 

 difference may be of human origin. In one Welsh stream 

 in our recollection, where most of the trout run moderately 

 dark, those caught in a long open pool formed by a mill- 

 weir, with a clear sandy bottom, gleam as bright as whiting 

 in the creel. To some extent the trout has the power of 

 altering his colour to suit his surroundings by closing or 

 opening the pores in the skin which display pigment. 



A WELSH TROUT STREAM 



Part of the attraction of every trout-pool is in its mystery. 

 Its life is separated from our own by the element which 

 is natural to fish but alien to ourselves, and the size and 

 number of the trout which it harbours are uncertain. The 

 largest fish only appear very occasionally to feed, and spend 

 most of their time in hollows among the roots of the willows 

 or behind the camp-sheathing of the streams in the water- 

 meadows. Gradually we may form an estimate of the trout 

 which live in a deep pool by watching what fish appear in 

 the best feeding-grounds at different times of the day. Every 

 trout has his own holt or hiding-place, but the more open 



