IN A WELSH VALLEY 179 



blues I might have caught some bigger fish and more 

 of them. I never saw trout rise with more enthu- 

 siasm for an hour or so. 



I have not had enough opportunities to be didactic 

 about it, but I fancy that wet-fly streams, and parts 

 of them, could be divided into about three classes 

 so far as the size of fish is concerned : (a) The very 

 barren, rocky streams and parts where seven or 

 eight fish would be needed to weigh a pound and 

 where the exceptional half-pounders have big heads 

 and long lean bodies, (b) The normal streams and 

 parts where a five to the pound average is to be 

 expected. Here the half-pounder is better shaped 

 and looks less of a cannibal, (c) The rich streams 

 and parts where the average goes up to three to the 

 pound, and where you may expect a sprinkling of 

 pounders, and may hope for an occasional fish of 

 two pounds or even more. 



The Penydwddwr, where I know it, belongs to the 

 normal class, and it is not so lavish of its half- 

 pounders as to make us blase in regard to them. 

 We have, in fact, in that valley a very proper 

 respect for a half-pounder. Indeed, the word 

 " respect " is scarcely adequate. You really ought 

 to hear Caradoc tell the story which takes him cast 

 by cast to the very top of the run below the bluff, 

 and which ends with two leaps, one despai r, and the 

 words " a real big fish, my dear fellow, half a pound." 



