A LITTLE CHALK STREAM 41 



sober little pools, contrary little eddies, turbulent 

 little hatch-holes, and all the rest of the scenery 

 complete. The weed-beds are circumscribed but 

 vigorous, the accumulations of mud insignificant yet 

 definite, and in places the banks quake like their 

 betters, while a man may subside into little quag- 

 mires just as he would in more important places. 

 Happily he does not subside very far, so he gets a 

 sense of adventure without undue risk or discomfort. 



As the river so the trout. They also are built on 

 a small, though perfect, scale. Their average 

 weight is about ten ounces by that I mean the 

 average weight of trout killed on the fishing 

 which I have specially in mind. In some parts of 

 the stream the average may be a little lower than 

 this, half a pound perhaps. Nowhere, probably, 

 is it very much higher. A pounder is looked upon 

 as an achievement, and the biggest caught by any 

 rod on the water in question during two seasons 

 did not exceed a pound and a quarter. For a chalk 

 stream such weights are small, and there are moun- 

 tain streams which could show almost as good an 

 average in parts of their course, which certainly 

 yield bigger fish occasionally. The Usk in Wales 

 and the Deveron or Don in Scotland would possibly 

 not suffer by comparison with this Hampshire 

 stream. 



Size, however, is not the only criterion of merit, 



