382 SALMON AND TROUT. 



aspect of the case that this holds true. Streams polluted by 

 mine water not only cease to contain fish and look disgusting, 

 but are a positive source of danger to the health of the popu- 

 lation who live upon the banks, and who, as well as the cattle, 

 often partially poison themselves by drinking the tainted water. 



WORM FISHING FOR BROWN TROUT. 



Thanks to a great extent to the late Mr. Stewart, worm 

 fishing for trout has been of late years rescued from a posjtion 

 of obscurity, not to say contempt, and elevated into one of the 

 recognised branches of scientific angling. It was formerly 

 supposed that worm fishing could only be practised with 

 success in rivers or streams when in a state of partial flood. 

 The fisherman, wielding a short stiff rod with a single large 

 hook at the end of extra coarse tackle, used to walk down the 

 river banks, when the water was supposed to be sufficiently 

 discoloured, fishing before him or under him the likely looking 

 holes, and hauling out, by sheer force and with the smallest pos- 

 sible amount of law, any unlucky victim which the purblinding 

 condition of its own element was mainly instrumental in trans- 

 ferring to ours. Thanks, I say, in a great measure, to Mr. 

 Stewart and his teaching, all this is now changed, and, although 

 with improved hooks and finer tackle, the worm-fisher will still 

 expect under many circumstances to make a good basket in 

 full or flood water, he regards as his red-letter days a scorching 

 summer sun, and a water so bright and clear as to make fly 

 fishing, except very early and late, next to an impossibility. 



Making the best of these unpropitious circumstances, the 

 sagacious angler leaves his fly rod at home, and betakes him- 

 self to worm fishing. Equipped with wading boots, or, better, 

 wading trousers, he enters the stream, usually preferring a good 

 broad sheet of water, not too deep, and, moving gently and 

 cautiously, with a long, light, stiffish rod, he casts his bait well 



