190 SUMMER 



is known as ' smutting,' and is a frequent feature of life by 

 the trout-streams in June. 



Great respect is paid to age among trout ; for age means 

 size, and larger size involves the power to devour. Great 

 lean old trout with hooked jaws and discoloured skins feed 

 chiefly on smaller members of their own kind, and their ugly 

 appearance is set down to their cannibal diet. It is more 

 probably simply the effect of their age, though it is true that 

 the older a trout gets the more seldom it will rise to a fly. 

 But trout of all sizes feed on smaller brothers when they get 

 the chance. The chance, on the other hand, must be an 

 obvious and easy one ; and trout do not race about the pool 

 after each other like sharks. So long as the juniors keep 

 their distance they are usually safe, and they may feed on 

 the good gravel shallows when the seniors are not hungry. 

 By watching a good trout-pool from a bridge when the fish 

 are still active in early summer, we can see how the whole 

 life of the pool is a balance of tyranny and recognised 

 custom. As the duns float down, or as we drop them in for 

 experimental purposes, first a smaller fish darts up from 

 some open station and seizes the fly. After this has hap- 

 pened once or twice, it excites the attention of a larger fish. 

 Out he lolls from beneath a floating mat of weed, and away 

 the smaller fish scurries, back to his own inferior position 

 at the tail of the pool, where he gets his better's leavings. 

 If the big fish is hungry he may keep his position for some 

 time, and snap up or at least investigate and reject whatever 

 flies may come within his reach. If the weather is hot, and 

 he is torpid, he will soon drop back from the current into 

 his holt. But the first little fish is rash if he returns again ; 

 for this activity on the part of the pool's lord has stirred up 

 another trout, or perhaps two or three, of the next size to 

 the biggest. He, or they, now take up their station at the 



