EARLY EXPERIENCES 19 



freely and their fighting qualities compared, it 

 is not easy to decide which is the gamer. The 

 leaping of the brown trout is often more im- 

 pressive than the determined resistance of the 

 native trout, and the taking of a particularly 

 active or particularly sluggish fish of either 

 variety is frequently made the basis for an 

 opinion. It seems to me that, in any event, the 

 taking of even a single fair fish of either variety 

 on the fly is an achievement to be put down as 

 a distinct credit to the angler's skill and some- 

 thing to be proud of and to remember. Our 

 native brook-trout is much loved of man. It 

 has come to be something more than a fish: 

 it is an ideal. It will always hold first place in 

 the hearts of many anglers. I fear, however, 

 that it must yield first place in the streams to 

 its European contemporary, he having been 

 endowed by nature with a constitution fitted to 

 contend against existing conditions and sur- 

 vive. 



My many years' experience upon the streams 

 of New York and Pennsylvania have brought 

 me to realise that changed conditions call for 

 an expertness of skill and knowledge that 

 anglers of the past generation did very well 

 without. The streams now are smaller, the fish 



