CHAPTER X 



Hampshire Grayling An unlucky Jump Nursing a Grayling 

 and waiting for the Keeper 



" HAVE you any engagement for Friday of next 



week, dad ? Mr called on me to-day and, as 



he was leaving, said he hoped you were well and 

 then asked me if I thought you would like to have 

 another try for his grayling. I told him I felt sure 

 you would and that our failure on our last visit 

 would only make you the more anxious to try 

 again." 



"Well, Phil," I replied, "it was really very kind 

 of him. I don't think there is any engagement 

 important enough to keep me from going. I am 

 glad you are coming, too, for you may have sup- 

 posed from our last visit that there were no fish or, 

 if any, that they were few and far between." 



11 Oh no, dad ; I quite believe the fish are there." 



" I should think they are, my boy. Why I would 

 give up a day's pheasant shooting for an hour 

 among those grayling. They are the biggest in all 

 Hampshire." 



We are told that grayling were brought to many 

 of our streams by our Friday-fasting forefathers to 

 provide food and sport during the months when 

 the other members of the salmonidae family are 

 out of season. The wisdom of this step is doubted 

 by many, so far as it affects present-day sport, but 

 xai 



