THE EDEN AS A TROUTING RIVER 157 



grayling ova than the grayling can possibly do with 

 the trout oya. 



Of all the trouting streams in the Eden valley 

 the Eamont, and particularly the lower reaches from 

 Brougham Castle to Edenhall, carries the largest 

 amount of fish food. Its stock of trout is also good, 

 but might be much greater. I have examined the 

 bottom and edges of this delightful tributary at all 

 seasons of the year. A stone cannot be lifted, and 

 it is very stony, or a weed bed disturbed without 

 a superabundance of aquatic life being revealed. 



Many of the quiet backwaters have their bottoms 

 covered with stick caddis. The stone housed 

 caddis are also plentiful. All the way up, by the 

 famous red sandstone caves of primitive man, virgin 

 forest overhangs the river and scatters all kinds of 

 landborn insects into the bluish lake-born water. 



But the Eamont is also a safe refuge to many of 

 the natural enemies of trout. 



Not far from its woody banks there exists the 

 large and ancient heronry of the Musgraves at 

 Edenhall. The herons have their nests in the great 

 gaunt Scotch firs that surround the north end of 

 Edenhall Lake. I have sometimes been on the 

 lake at breeding time, when the young herons are 

 crowding the nests, and, sitting quietly in the boat, 

 I have watched the parent birds feeding their 



