2g( 



THE NATURE BOOK 



A Trout of five years old may weigh 

 over three pounds, or it may weigh no 

 more than three ounces. Everything 

 depends upon the quantity and quahty 

 of the food supply. Yearling Trout, 

 reared in hatcheries and stock ponds, 

 and turned into waters abundantly pro- 

 vided with insect life, very quickly grow 



The rivers that favour the vigorous 

 growth of Trout are usually those which 

 water a fairly fertile region of pasture 

 and cultivated land. A belt of trees by 

 the stream, the presence of weed in the 

 water, and reeds along the banks, tend 

 to the increase of weight in Trout. 

 Wherever a few trees and bushes clothe 



A SOUTH-CoulNiki TROUT STREAM. 



into goodly fish. Blagdon Lake, near 

 Bristol, is a water that presents every 

 natural advantage for the production of 

 heavy Trout ; and small Trout, intro- 

 duced to this lake, have gro\\'n almost 

 miraculously in a short period. 



What a difference is presented by the 

 unshaj)ely. dwarfed Trout of a cold Welsh 

 lake among the mountains, or one of tlu- 

 over-populated lochs of the Highlands of 

 Scotland, and the handsome, well-fed 

 Trout of Blagdon. In Llyn Howel, for 

 example — a deep pool in a rocky basin of 

 the Harlech Mountains — the Trout are 

 veritable ])igmies. with large heads and 

 big, staring eyes. No doubt many of 

 these starved fish are several years old. 

 The Lake District offers similar instances 

 of stunted Trout in elevated tarns, though 

 the lakes in a lower altitude produce 

 Trout of two pounds and upwards. 



the bank of an upland brook, the Trout 

 are larger than those that frequent the 

 bare reaches. Every tree produces and 

 harbours insects, which often fall upon 

 the surface of the stream or fiy close to 

 the water, and jirovide food for the 

 Trout that lurk in the shadow of the 

 bdughs. 



In such streams as the Chess and the 

 l\el. in Bucks, and the Test and IIcIumi, 

 in Hants, the Trout are large, jjlump 

 in appearance, and beautifully coloured. 

 But if we entice the Trout of a Dartmoor 

 brook with an artificial fly, we shall find 

 that their average weight is under a 

 quarter of a ])ound. and that they are 

 darker and less golden than tliose of* 

 more generous streams. More marked 

 still is the difference that we shall find 

 in the almost black Troutlets that swim 

 in the dark, ])eaty waters of a boggy fell 



