183 



CHAPTER XV. 



TROUTING IN THE ASTURIAS AND IN LEON. 



The wide pastoral province of Leon, with its unexplored 

 wilds of the Vierzo and the Maragateria, and many another 

 savage region bordering on the southern slopes of the 

 Galician and Cantabrian highlands, is practically a terra 

 incofiuita to British sportsman and naturalist. Well would 

 Leon repay either of these for the enterprise expended on 

 its exploration. Mountain and plain afford shelter for 

 game — large and small — of all the kinds native to Spain ; 

 while the rivers flowing southwards from the Asturian 

 ranges probably afford as good trout-fishing as any in the 

 Peninsula. 



Our own experiences in Leon were limited, as regards 

 its fronting capacities, to a mere flymg visit, when we 

 alighted one morning in mid-May, at a wayside station in 

 North Leon, tempted to break a monotonous journey by 

 the trout-like appearance of a stream that, for some dis- 

 tance, had run more or less parallel with the railway. 



The country immediately adjacent was not attractive ; 

 flat, tawny, and arid, with few trees and very partial 

 cultivation. On either bank, at a mile or two's distance, 

 rose ranges of low broken hills, gradually increasing m 

 height as they closed in upon the river. Here and there 

 stood scattered hamlets, all built of the yellowish sun- 

 baked brick characteristic of Leon ; the houses huddled 

 together, and usually enclosed by the remnants of a former 

 wall or fortification. 



It was nearly noon ere we reached the waterside, at the 

 head of a long stretch of deep, still water, fringed on the 

 opposite shore with canes and bulrushes, and well rippled 

 by a strong breeze. The sun-glare was intense ; and. 



