AND ANGLING SONGS. 97 



three pounds in weight, when to my surprise, within a yard of 

 the spot where it seized my baited tackle, a trout rose. Accord- 

 ingly, in expectation of catching it, I substituted for my gimp- 

 tackle a gut casting-line, along with such appendages as are 

 required in worm-fishing. In the course of a minute or two the 

 trout, a half-pounder, was lying on the sward side by side with 

 his natural enemy ; and not a quarter of an hour after, another 

 pike, abstracted from the very same spot, completed the trio. 



This occurrence led to the discussion whether the trout in 

 question was a chance-comer or a resident, a stray traveller that 

 had fallen into a den of cut-throats, or a privileged occupant of 

 the locality, who, by virtue of his superior status, lived there 

 with impunity. To take another view of the matter not a very 

 reasonable one certainly, but the natural history of some fishes 

 is linked with things as strange, was it not possible that, by 

 some tacit understanding, this trout played the part of a decoy 

 to the pike, and enticed victims towards the seizing points of 

 their haunts ? Or might not the fact of its occupying uninjured 

 a centre-point within the garrison of its reputed foes, assist to 

 show that pike, while they will readily assail injured trout, or 

 the fry of salmon pushing seawards, will not press the attack 

 upon healthy fish established in their beats ? 



Many other instances of this forbearance on the part of pike, 

 or good understanding betwixt them and trout, I have met with, 

 both on Till and Teviot ; but the most singular one occurred in 

 connexion with a small pond not sixty yards in circumference, 

 situated near the Glen, or lower part of the Bowmont, in North- 

 umberland. There I found both trout and pike cooped up 

 together, and living in apparent harmony. My journal records 

 the circumstance of capturing specimens of each fish on the 16th 

 of June 1841, on the occasion of a meeting of the Glendale 

 Fishing Club, out of this place. Immediately below Kelso 

 Bridge, on the north side of the river, in what may be called the 



G 



