300 KIVERS SUITABLE TO GRAYLING. 



tended to them by the proprietor, Dr. Wickham, of Win-* 

 Chester, they now abound there. Last year I caught dozens 

 young grayling there of dace size. It has been brought 

 also into the Clyde, where it has thriven well ; and I hear 

 that it is increasing rapidly in the Tweed. But there are 

 very many other rivers the tributaries of the Thames 

 where it could be naturalised : the two Colnes, the Wind- 

 rush, parts of the Mole, the Darent, the Wey, the Brent, 

 and others for it is not every river which will suit the 

 grayling ; whereas almost any river, if not already overrun 

 with coarse fish, will suit the trout, if there are any shal- 

 low! at all for it to spawn on. Grayling love deep eddies 

 and quiet reaches, but they also like sharp and rapid shal- 

 lows a weedy shallow which ends in a deep safe eddy, 

 with a gravelly bottom, and loamy hollowed out banks, 

 being the especial abiding-place of grayling ; and where 

 these alternate with sharp bends, full of nooks and corners 

 of refuge, the stream will suit grayling to admiration. 



I must touch on one other point, before I have done 

 with grayling. It is said that they diminish the trout. 

 I doubt much if they diminish the trout more than the 

 trout themselves do. They will eat trout spawn ; and so 

 will a hungry trout, and that to any extent. But I have 

 fished some of the best grayling streams, and trout, both 

 large and small, were fairly abundant, store-fish being by 

 no means wanting. The grayling, of course, deprives the 

 trout of a large portion of the food he would have if left 

 to himself, and it is a curious fact that in good grayling 

 streams the trout are seldom of so good quality or condi- 

 tion as they are in pure trout streams. Whether this be 

 at all owing to the grayling or no, it is difficult to say. I 

 do not think that any number of grayling diminish the 

 trout more than the same number of trout would, and the 

 more particularly as grayling do not habitually feed on 

 the fry, or on their own offspring, while trout do greedily ; 



