CHAPTER IX 



THE SOMERSETSHIRE STREAMS 



Somersetshire is a fairly well watered county, 

 having a good many rivers, some of considerable 

 size ; but it scarcely possesses any trout streams 

 which can compare with the first-class streams of 

 Hampshire, Wilts, Berks, or Dorset. Its chief river 

 is the Parret, a turbid and sluggish water, running, 

 for the most part, through a flat country, much of 

 which is reclaimed bog and marsh, and containing 

 a good number of pike, perch, roach, dace, carp, 

 tench, and other coarse fish. Near its source the 

 Parret has more the appearance of a trout stream, 

 and some years ago it contained a fair number of 

 trout in its head waters ; but it cannot now claim 

 to be a trout stream in any part. The Parret's 

 chief tributaries are the Isle, Tone, Carey, and Yeo 

 or Ivel ; whilst the Brue joins the estuary of the 

 Parrett near Highbridge. The Isle, Tone, and 

 Carey, with some of their tributaries, contain 

 trout ; but the Yeo, or Ivel, has only a few here and 

 there, none about Ilchester, though an occasional 

 one, I believe, in the neighbourhoods of Yeovil and 

 of Chilton Cantels. An interesting spot in the 



