2l6 APPLICATION. 



bait are greatly exaggerated ; as a lure for trout 

 during the season when they are in condition it 

 has no advantage, in any state of water, over the 

 lures which have been treated of, and in clear 

 water, during the day, it is almost useless. Nor 

 is the sport, if sport it can be called, by any means 

 attractive ; and the practice is so simple as to 

 render it quite unworthy of the attention of the 

 sportsman. 



That trout can detect the presence of roe in 

 their neighbourhood is certain ; but, in our opinion, 

 the distance at which it is supposed they can do so 

 is greatly exaggerated. Mr. Stoddart mentioned 

 that on several occasions he captured trout which 

 he had every reason to believe had been attracted 

 for half-a-niile by the scent of this bait, which is 

 certainly giving trout credit for possessing extra- 

 ordinary powers of smell. We think that on the 

 occasions alluded to by Mr. Stoddart, he captured 

 the trout which belonged to a part of the river so 

 much below where he was, not because they had 

 been attracted all that distance by the smell of the 

 roe, but because, when a flood begins to subside in 

 the fall of the year, they travel upwards in search 

 of spawning-ground. As a proof of this, let any 

 one commence angling with the roe in a favourable 

 state of the water during March or April, when 

 trout will take it as readily as in November. On 

 his first commencement at the top of a pool, which 

 we shall suppose is a hundred yards long, he may 



