THE COMMON BROWN TROUT. 247 



next proceed to refer to the use of them. In everything is this work 

 suggestive rather than comprehensive. I have fitted up the supposi- 

 titious tyro with his rod, reel, lines, and flies, and now, bringing him to 

 the water, I bid him use them according to the guidance I offer. 



Obviously, the first consideration in this connection is " where to 

 fish." Many persons go to the bank of the stream, nay, to its Very 

 brink, with confidence that sport will come to them. They are self- 

 satisfied in the knowledge that they have the right tackle wherewith fish 

 may be taken and that there are fish in the stream. But ere long they 

 arrive at a different conclusion. Trout are among the wiliest of our 

 fresh-water denizens, and are not to be wooed and won without consider- 

 able care and caution. Now, it is almost impossible to direct, in terms 

 which shall be utterly precise, the positions in a river in which trout are 

 to be found. Eivers vary so much, that to absolutely fix by arbitrary 

 catalogue any particular spot or spots would infallibly be to delude the 

 angler, and not help him. I therefore simply indicate such positions as 

 may seem of the character generic. These are as follows, in brief : The 

 head and tail of a stream ; eddies formed by inferior obstructions, such 

 as a pile or block ; where the stream is deepest and quietest ; wherever 

 the large masses of foam collect ; in very tiny whirlpools during a fresh ; 

 and, lastly, in the current between weeds. The reason for the latter 

 locality being given is plain. The weeds harbour numerous water insects 

 on which salmo fario feeds, and the swifter stream affords him occasion- 

 ally food of an ephemeral description as it floats down to his waiting jaw. 



This is about all the information one can impart with safety to the 

 tyro. To the experienced angler there are many additions which will occur 

 to him in connection with my enumeration. Under banks, for example, 

 where the comfort-loving chub also prefers to foster himself, many a salmo 

 fario has been "tickled," or, as they say in Scotland, " griddled." So, 

 also, as saith the poet : 



The trout within yon wimplin' burn 



Glides swift as silver dart, 

 And safe beneath the shady thorn 



Defies the angler's art. 



No ! No ! Mr. Poet, not " defies," but, rather, "stimulates," though 

 the word is not one of measure for your rhyme ! 



Experience, and true experience only, which implies observation of the 

 closest kind, will decide the selection of each particular spot to which the 

 fly should be thrown, and the part of the river most likely to produce sport. 

 Of course, I am not going to say that there is even then any absolute 

 certainty of fixing placing one's finger, so to say on the location of a 

 waiting fish. The said fish may be hunting hence on the move, hence 



