CHAPTER V. 

 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, 



HE principal angling rivers of Yorkshire are the 

 Driffield Beck, the Wharfe, Aire, Derwent, Rye, 

 Ure, Ribble, Nidd, Swale, and Codbeck. With 

 the exception of the first-named, all these 

 waters present the same natural characteristics, 

 running merrily over a rocky or gravel bottom in a 

 succession of shallow streams and dubs, with the rare 

 alternation of a deep pool. The Driffield Beck, on the 

 other hand, with one or two smaller streams in the same 

 part of the county, is a slow running river, resembling the 

 chalk streams of Hampshire, and the trout in its waters 

 give a much heavier average weight than those of any other 

 stream in the north of England. The Drifrleld fish are not 

 to be caught by a novice ; the angler must have served an 

 apprenticeship to dry-fly fishing, and must carefully consider 

 wind and weather, and be an adept in what is, perhaps, 

 after 'all the most difficult and at the same time the most 

 necessary of all the points in the angler's craft, the art of 

 keeping out of sight. 



Of the other rivers, the best is the delightful Wharfe, 

 hurrying impetuously over its rocky bed in the higher 

 reaches or sweeping gracefully round "Bolton'sold monastic 

 pile," where the angler pauses constantly in his craft that 

 his whole soul may take in the glorious scenes which Nature 



