18 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



believe that a ten-year-old trout may not weigh 

 half a pound, or may weigh six pounds, according 

 to the quality and quantity of its food. 



The number of trout a river produces depends 

 upon a variety of natural causes, the principal of 

 which is the spawning accommodation. Rivers in 

 which there are plenty of smooth gravelly stretches, 

 and which receive numerous small tributaries, gene- 

 rally produce numbers of trout shallow water and 

 a gravelly bottom being necessary for the deposit 

 of the spawn. If a river is scantily furnished with 

 spawning accommodation and also with food, the 

 trout will neither be numerous nor large ; the 

 Spey, the Dee, the Esk (Dumfriesshire), and most 

 Highland streams, are examples of this. If the 

 spawning accommodation is deficient and the feeding 

 good, the trout are large, as in most slow-running 

 streams. If the spawning accommodation is good 

 and the supply of food limited, the trout are gene- 

 rally numerous but small; Manor and Quair in 

 Peeblesshire, and some of the tributaries of the 

 Whitadder in Berwickshire, are examples of this, 

 in any of which the angler may easily capture from 

 ten to fifteen dozen of trout any day in summer. 



Small rivers produce more trout in proportion 

 to their size than large ones, as a large river has 

 not so much bed in proportion to its volume of 

 water ; and it is principally the bed of a river which 

 yields the insects and other food upon which trout 

 live. Rivers where the salmon-fry, or parr, as they 

 are usually called, are very numerous, are rarely such 



