GRAYLING FISHING. 169 



And yet Sir Humphry affirms that the fish spawned 

 in April, in the October of the same year attain the 

 weight of half a pound, or even ten ounces ! ! 



' Leaving this for more competent judges to deter- 

 mine, I will now state the common opinion, to which 

 I confess I am much more inclined than the other. 

 It is that the pink grayling are the fry of the pre- 

 sent year, the shett, of the year preceding ; and 

 therefore, instead of being a fish of rapid growth, 

 that a grayling of more than hah a pound is a fish 

 of nearly two years of age, and up to which time 

 they do not spawn. 



' I cannot either allow the grayling to be a shy 

 fish; if you miss a trout once, you have little 

 chance of rising him again, at least in a river so 

 much fished as the Leintwardine water ; but you 

 may rise a grayling six or eight times at successive 

 casts, and at last find a snug corner for him in 

 your basket. But enough of Sir Humphry, who 

 in my opinion was a better philosopher than a fisher- 

 man ; and I should have been happy to fish against 

 Halieus and Ornither, or either of his companions, 

 for the best 13 foot fly-rod in old Chevalier's shop. 

 In proof of this, and to give a tolerable idea of the 

 sport, I have copied out a list of grayling killed by 

 my own rod in the summer of 1 833. I ought how- 

 ever to observe, that on many of the days recorded 

 I was only at the river for an hour or two, on my 

 way to, and from, Ludlow, and also that it only 

 I 



