SOME TINY WATERS 23 



every rill are well enough understood. The spark- 

 ling water is in itself a proof of them. 



But the brooks of the clay and other less promising 

 localities look more like the sluggish rivers which 

 they ultimately join, and suggest bream and eels. 

 Unless, therefore, a man has by some chance dis- 

 covered that they may hold trout, it would not 

 occur to him to study them with that object. They 

 are bound to be found out and developed in time, 

 since the demand for trout fishing in accessible 

 places is much greater than the present supply, 

 and the man who once tries it will probably find 

 that the sport provided by such streamlets has 

 features of its own which are not to be matched in 

 any other kind of water. The very difficulties of 

 fishing, which are often immense because the water 

 is nearly always much bushed in places, are an 

 attraction. Possibly the survival of the trout at all 

 in a brook of the kind is due to this growth on the 

 banks. It is worth remembering that herons are 

 rather shy of the much-bushed parts of little streams. 

 Herons can play the mischief with trout which have 

 no protection. From the fishing point of view I 

 would always have a brook pretty difficult. " Plenty 

 of fish, but very hard to catch " is, it seems to 

 me, a very good character for a small stream to 

 have. 



The description of a day on another brook, slightly 



