DECREASE OF TROUT. 23 



trout are in their best condition when the May- 

 flies are just done, which is generally about the 

 end of June. They continue in condition all July, 

 but subsequently begin to fall off those that are 

 red-fleshed losing their colour, and all kinds becom- 

 ing pale and soft; and by the end of September 

 or beginning of October are quite fall of spawn 

 and hardly worth capturing. It requires very 

 little experience to tell whether or not a trout is 

 in condition ; the small head in proportion to the 

 body, and the breadth and thickness of the body 

 itself, at once indicate the well-conditioned fish. 

 All anglers should confine their operations to 

 that period of the year when trout are fit for the 

 table, as it is unsportsman-like in the highest 

 degree to kill fish that are of no use. Such being 

 our opinion, we shall limit the consideration of 

 angling to the months in which trout are in con- 

 dition. 



During the last twenty years a great decrease 

 has taken place in the quantity of trout in our 

 southern streams, and any angler who has been in 

 the habit of frequenting regularly a particular 

 stream during that time must have noticed an 

 almost annual diminution in the number, and still 

 more in the size, of its finny inhabitants. This is 

 an alarming fact, and well worthy the attention 

 of the angling community, as some of the most 

 fruitful causes of this disastrous result might be 

 stopped. Some of them, however, there is no help 



