YARRELL'S CLASSIFICATION 



7. Northern char. 



8. Welsh char. 



9. Smelt. 



10. Grayling. 



11. Gwyniad. 

 j 2. Vendace. 

 13. Argentine. 



Thirteen in all. It is, however, only of the 

 first six and the tenth to which I propose to refer. 

 For the present we will devote our attention to 

 the common trout. 



There are comparatively few counties in the 

 United Kingdom in whose streams trout are not 

 more or less plentiful, nor is there any fish more 

 beautiful than a well -conditioned trout a fish 

 whose very appearance bespeaks the character of 

 the streams it loves to frequent ; bold, vigorous, 

 beautiful, and clean, it ever prefers those rivers 

 which, possessing food enough for its sustenance, 

 are unpolluted, rapid, and course over a hard, 

 clean bed of gravel, chalk, or rock ; and it is 

 more especially in the two former of these that 

 trout thrive best and attain to the greatest 

 weight. Where the bed is rocky, the stream 

 over- swift, and subject to extreme variation 

 in height during excessive flood or drought, 

 though trout may be plentiful, they rarely 

 attain to anything like a good average weight, 

 and they are mostly small. Since it has been 



