264 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



rising the dredge or the net is used with advantage, 

 and there is always something to watch, and much 

 to interest the mind and occupy the hands and eyes. 

 Grant, if you will, that the fish you beguile with an 

 artistic representation of the precise shade of olive 

 dun which you saw him suck down a few minutes 

 ago might equally have risen to a well-cocked Wick- 

 ham or " Tup's Indispensable," you would not have 

 had or deserved the same thrill of exultation if that 

 had been the case. 



There was a period long before I came to these 

 parts when all the fish in the lower reaches were 

 poisoned by the overflow of some works or mill higher 

 up the stream. From that period, I believe, dates the 

 total disappearance of the crayfish. I have been told 

 by former inhabitants that these Crustacea used to 

 swarm in the Lambourne, as they still do in the 

 Embourne and some of the other neighbouring streams. 

 So far as I know, there is not one to be found now 

 in any part of the river, although there have been 

 attempts to reintroduce them. I think I shall make 

 the experiment once more, as I should like to have 

 some in the stream, and I have heard that their imma- 

 ture young provide very good and fattening diet for 

 the trout. As a compensation for their loss we may 

 balance the destruction of the pike, which were totally 

 exterminated at the same time, and have never since 

 returned to torment us. There are none now ; but 

 my predecessor here told me that he remembers catch- 

 ing one of twelve pounds weight nearly opposite to 

 the old mulberry- tree, a little below the house. I 

 have often wondered that they have not reappeared 

 from the Kennet, where they are only too plentiful ; I 



