264 ■ OUT OF DOORS. 



We have still, however, another source of national 

 greatness — a very gold mine of wealth — requiring little 

 outlay and less trouble. Our rivers bring riches to oui 

 very feet ; and the golden sands of the Pactolus may be 

 outshone in true value by the pebbly gravel, stony 

 rocks, or shadowy banks of our English streams. The 

 treasures of California and Australia lay hidden in the 

 rocks and sands for ages, trodden under foot by the 

 heedless and ignorant, and only revealing themselves to 

 those who would work and think. In like manner the 

 treasures of our own streams sweep daily past our un • 

 suspecting eyes, and will be given only to those who 

 will take the trouble to learn about them and search 

 for them. 



It is but lately that we have begun to think that 

 good fish are really valuable articles, and to discover 

 that the supply is annually decreasing. For this dis- 

 covery we are chiefly indebted to sportsmen, whose 

 observant habits and watchful acuteness are invaluable 

 aids to the cause of which we are about to treat. And, 

 although in the few pages which can be given to an 

 important subject we shall treat of the rivers and their 

 living treasures without any reference to mere sporting 

 interests, the reader will of course understand that the 

 interests of the nation and the sportsman are identical, 

 and that, in speaking of the one, we necessarily include 

 the other. 



For the last few years our river fisheries have been 

 failing. There is no doubt of it. The sporting papers 



