OX RAPID STREAMS. 139 



a little more minutely compare the beetle and fern 

 web. The former has the great advantage of 

 being very much harder than the latter, and conse- 

 quently lasts much longer on the hook; indeed, 

 you may often catch four or five trout without 

 putting on new beetles. Almost every trout you 

 get hold of will take away your fern web ; and 

 with the beetle you can throw more boldly, and 

 into places you might be afraid to cast with the 

 fern web. This, in the beetle, is increase of utility, 

 with economy of time and trouble. The beetle is 

 a more universal insect than the fern web, and 

 may, in the North of Devon, be obtained in abun- 

 dance, when not a fern web is to be seen; and at 

 all times they are more numerous. The beetle 

 will live longer in your keeping than the more 

 delicate fern web. 



In powers of attraction, on the whole, the fern 

 web has the advantage. In the Bray, the Mole, 

 their tributary streams, and the double water 

 which they form, I think the beetle equal to the 

 fern web. On the streams of Exmoor, and I 

 believe of Dartmoor, the fern web seems to be the 

 more attractive. This may be from the abundance 

 of the fern web natural to these parts, and their 

 comparative scarcity in the immediate vicinity of 

 the Bray, the Mole, and the double waters formed 

 by their confluence. Thus, whilst in all the 

 streams it equals, in some it excels the beetle as 

 an allurement. I cannot allow that the fern web 

 is at all superior to the beetle on the Bray ; after 

 much experience, I consider them equal in point 



