4 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



slow deep streams which are naturally regarded 

 as the proper homes of pike, perch, bream, barbel, 

 and other coarse fish. They are also to be occasion- 

 ally killed in more or less polluted running waters, 

 provided the pollution be not of the poisonous kind 

 resulting from mines or the manufacturers' mill. 

 Such waters as these latter will not come into the 

 scope of this little volume. There are certain 

 features which are, I think, generally regarded as 

 indispensable before a water can be fairly described 

 as a trout stream. The good trout stream contains 

 pure sweet water, with a gravelly or a rocky bed, 

 with a current sufficient to save it — except of course 

 in parts — from the reproach of being dead or slug- 

 gish, with shallows for the fish to spawn upon, 

 and with green fresh-looking vv^eed which affords 

 cover for the fish and marks the spots where not 

 a little of their food is placed by nature. The 

 more perfect these features the finer the trout 

 stream. 



Clearness or sweetness of water is a feature of 

 the trout stream which all trout fishermen, whether 

 they hail from north or south, or fish with wet or 

 dry fly, will agree is essential to perfection. The 

 strength of the current is another matter. The 

 north country angler and the believer in wet fly 

 are more likely to set store by a pure trout stream 

 which travels with plenty of life and sound, and 

 so will he who affects the waters, moorland and 

 others, of Devonshire and Somerset ; while on the 

 other hand the dry-fly angler desires to see in his 

 perfect trout stream nothing like impetuosity ; his 

 is the favourite water which steals or gently sings 

 its way through an undulating land. The good 

 trout stream may, in fact, be either slow or swift 



