TRANSPORTATION OF SMALL TROUT 21 



purpose, the waves curling and the ' white watter ' 

 dashing about like a miniature sea. Fish bred 

 and brought up under such conditions as these 

 must surely be as hardy and bold as any of their 

 species can well be. And so I should give the 

 preference to such parentage. 



I do not know if the little trout which inhabit 

 our more rocky streams, and the moor and other 

 brooks in these islands, were to be transported to 

 any of our rivers, such as the Test, Itchen, 

 Hampshire Avon, etc., which are prolific in fly- 

 food, would, provided they were young enough 

 for the experiment to be made, grow to the size 

 of the fish which belong to the latter rivers ? 

 But I am of opinion that they would not ; their 

 descendants of the second or third generation per- 

 haps might do so, but it is my belief that the 

 species, if such it may be termed, has, by reason 

 of scarcity of food, etc., become dwarfed and 

 stunted. They would doubtless improve rapidly, 

 and if not fully matured when moved from the 

 one river to the other, would attain to greater size 

 than if left in their own stream. 



I believe these fish to have been always small 

 of their kind. True it is that here and there 

 one of a respectable size may be taken ; such fish 

 are doubtless * master-trout,' old stagers which 

 keep all other fish which are inclined to trespass 

 on the territory which they have annexed, on the 



