14 THE HABITS AND HAUNTS OF FISH. 



common trout may be said to eclipse all other species. 

 Every loch and river, and almost every tributary, has 

 its variety. The geological formation of the bed of 

 the river, the aquatic vegetation, and the quality and 

 description of the food obtained by the fish, have 

 much to do with this variation. No fish can be said 

 to be so widely distributed, or so capable of affording 

 more variety of sport, from the lordly Thames fish to 

 the game little denizens of the Devon streams. Trout 

 will flourish in almost all waters capable of sustaining 

 fish, but their chosen resorts are rapid, clear mountain 

 streams ; the jostling waters of which, foaming amidst 

 fragments of rock, whirling and surging in their rapid 

 course, form numerous cascades and caverned banks. 

 Such are the favourite haunts of the trout. The 

 merest rill of clear and rapid water will often contain 

 vast quantities of these fish, when from its appearance 

 it would be deemed incapable of sustaining a single 

 fin. Under shelving banks and submerged substances, 

 amongst roots of trees bordering the banks of the 

 streams, trout secrete themselves when not on the 

 feed. A casual observer may ofttimes affirm a length 

 upon a noted trout stream to be wholly devoid of fish 

 after a careful and prolonged inspection along its 

 banks, when the subsequent appearance of surface 

 food will prove the water to be alive with them, and 

 they may as suddenly disappear upon the insects 

 leaving the water's surface to secrete themselves 

 before an impending atmospheric change. In some 

 districts trout spawn in winter, in others in October 

 and November, or in December ; and elsewhere in 



