Stwun Loach* 291 



whenever it begins to accumulate overmuch, It would 

 seem as if a current of fresh water were essential to the 

 ova, and that that is why the opening of the nest is so 

 carefully kept from becoming choked up. After a while 

 the fry come forth the most minute creatures imagin- 

 able, mere lines about half the length of the finger-nail. 

 They play round the opening, and will retreat within if 

 alarmed. 



Where the brook passes under a bridge of some size 

 the current divides to go through several small arches. 

 There is here some fall, and the stream is swift and bright, 

 chafing round and bubbling over stones. Here the 

 * miller's thumbs ' are numerous a bottom fish growing 

 to about four inches in length, and with a head enormously 

 broad and large in proportion to its body. They rarely 

 rise from the mud or sand ; they hide behind stones, their 

 heads buried in the sand, but their tails in sight. Every 

 now and then they change positions, swimming swiftly over 

 the bottom to another spot. Their voracity is very great, 

 and they often disappoint the angler by taking his bait. 

 The cottage people are said to eat them. 



The ' stwun loach ' stone loach, as the lads call it 

 hides also behind and under stones, and may be caught by 

 hand. These loach are apparently capricious in their 

 habits ; certain spots abound with them, in others you 

 may search the stream in vain for a long distance. So, 

 too, with the gudgeon : I noticed in one brook I frequently 

 passed that they never came up beyond one particular 

 bend, though there was no apparent difference in the soil 

 or in the stream itself. In the brook the jack do not seem 

 to care much about them ; but in the lake above there are 

 no gudgeon, and there a gudgeon is a fatal bait. Nothing 

 is so certain to take ; the gudgeon will tempt the pike 



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