318 SALMON AND TROUT. 



migration would probably be the very close of the year, that 

 they may have the advantage of cool weather for travelling, and 

 time to settle down in their new quarters before the breeding 

 season. 



Had I the direction of a ' Grayling-extension ' scheme, I 

 should wish above all things, without prejudice to the claims of 

 humbler streams, to have the experiment tried on a large scale 

 in the Thames. If my memory serves me, a few were turned 

 in near Reading some fifty years ago, but nothing came of it, 

 though a solitary fish was captured three years after. To be 

 successful, the attempt should be made in several successive 

 years and in three or four well-chosen places. I have seen 

 little of the Thames of late years, but having once known the 

 river thoroughly from Streatley to Richmond, I can recall every 

 feature of sundry reaches which formerly struck me as suitable 

 for grayling. For instance, there is a fine ford immediately 

 below Maple-Durham lock ; another about a mile above Spade 

 Oak, where the old buck stage formerly stood at the meeting of 

 the streams ; and miles of likely water between Maidenhead and 

 Monkey Island. Penton Hook, again, though not clear in my 

 mind's eye, occurs to me as fine grayling water, neither too 

 brisk nor too dull. No doubt the pike in the Thames are a 

 serious obstacle, though not, I think, an insurmountable one ; 

 but, on the other hand, to introduce a new and valuable fish into 

 the river beloved by the millions of London would be no trifling 

 public service. 



There are however plenty of other streams, from the low- 

 lands of Scotland to Kent and Sussex, where the grayling might 

 be introduced with every prospect of success. Among those 

 nearest to London I should name the Stour, and perhaps the 

 Darenth. The Driffield Beck below Wandsford Mill seems 

 exactly fitted to carry grayling side by side with trout 



But I do not pretend to enumerate the streams in which the 

 experiment should be tried. I wish rather to set angling clubs 

 and riparian proprietors to work in what seems to me a most 

 promising field. Especially let it be remembered that the 



