62 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



The JMolc rises near Crawley in Sussex and runs 

 to Horley, two miles and a half below which place 

 a stream coming from Rowfant joins. Afterwards 

 it passes Bletch worth, Dorking, Box Hill, Leather- 

 head, Cobham, Esher, and Moulsey, below which it 

 unites with the Thames. The Mole is a somewhat 

 turbid stream, yet it seems to have always held 

 good trout long before any one thought of stocking 

 it with fry or yearlings, which has been done in 

 several stretches. Of old it was noted for its ex- 

 cellent fish. Best, in his account of the principal 

 rivers in England, speaking of it as being " stored 

 with plenty of good trout, fat and large." In Best's 

 time there were trout so far down as Esher, where 

 there are certainly none to-day. To reach the 

 trouting portion of the stream the angler has to go 

 six or eight miles above that town to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Leatherhead. 



The upper waters of the Mole about Horley are 

 of small account. They contain no trout at the 

 present time, though there are a few fish in the 

 tributaries, and occasionally May fly are seen there 

 in small numbers. Just below Horley Mill the 

 Horley sewage farm discharges its resultant waters 

 into the stream, and this seems to have spoilt the 

 fishing for several miles down. It is amazing that 

 in these days our streams should be so often 

 turned into more or less open sewers. It is well 

 known that several of the most dreaded of diseases 

 invariably travel down stream, and surely no better 

 way of giving them a chance of spreading could be 

 devised than the practice of letting our " living 

 waters " carry down sewage and the like. 



The Mole is celebrated for what are called its 

 Swallow Holes at various spots between Box Hill 



