100 LIST OF FLIES. 



the dark and light drakes, with the small black silver 

 and golden hackles, may be fished in the day time ; 

 towards evening, small red drakes and the duns. 



NOVEMBER. 



ARDENTLY the trout pursues his unknown and oft 

 difficult track, dams, or obstructions, or the most 

 furious rapids stop not the fury of their ardour. By 

 the eve of St. Martin* the lengthened lines halt ; the 



* On the 28th of November there were some sharp splashes in the water 

 a little above Skellcrooks dam ; on peeping 1 unperceived over the edge of the 

 bank opposite the place, there were several pairs of trout laid in the water. 

 It happened to be their spawning time. They were not in the descending 

 or streamy part, but in the tail-end of the deep above, where the water runs 

 smooth and shallow over the gravel, similar to the gravelly shoal just above 

 the North-bridge, where we see grayling spawn and copulate the beginning 

 of April. The female trout kept her station in the spawning bed, with but 

 little motion, except every four or five minutes she ploughed up the gravel 

 with her nose, which seemed to be her own peculiar task. In doing this 

 she turned herself nearly an one side, and, with very quick motion of tail 

 and body, thrust her nose against the gravel, which swam down about her 

 and muddied the water, but showed the quick light glishes of her silvery 

 sides. The male kept in constant motion, about half to a full length behind, 

 hovering over her and veering from one side of her to the other, but 

 could not perceive that he ever touched her. His business seemed solely 

 then to watch and protect her. He frequently and furiously darted at other 

 trout, which was the cause of the splashes in the water that first attracted 

 my notice. These attacks were sudden and quick as lightning, they scarce 

 could be seen before the male was with his mate again. The spawning beds 

 seemed rather hollow and the gravel bright. In about a week after, weather 

 and water much the same, there were no splashes, and the trout had settled 

 into the dam below. 



