ROD AND RIVER 



conclusively proved that fly-food is the best of 

 all food for trout, I can only conclude that, from 

 the very fact of such rivers being subject to 

 heavy and sudden floods, and the extreme hard- 

 ness of their beds, the fly is washed away before 

 it attains maturity, and the fish are therefore 

 stunted in growth by reason of the want of suffi- 

 cient nourishment. 



Where the bed is of chalk or gravel, the case 

 is different, and fly-food is ever more plentiful ; 

 there is not only more lodgment for the eggs of 

 the water-flies, but such rivers are more constant 

 in height, and consequently more fly-eggs arrive 

 at maturity. It is, as I say, in such rivers as 

 these that trout attain to the heaviest weight, for 

 these streams abound in fly-food. 



That what is termed the ordinary brown trout, 

 the common trout, varies very considerably in 

 colour is indisputable ; and, indeed, this may be 

 observed in every stream, those fish which 

 frequent the shadier and deeper portions of the 

 water being of a fuller, richer colour than those 

 in the other parts. Soil also has a very marked 

 effect on the colour of fish, for in rivers which run 

 through peat -bogs and such -like, the trout are 

 deeper and yellower in colour. Fish are very 

 sensitive to their surroundings, and possess the 

 power of adapting their colour to that of the 

 water. Anyone who has watched any of the sole 



