II. 

 TROUT. 



OF all fresh-water fishes the brown brook-trout 

 is the one best loved by the angler. Salmon, 

 trout, and grayling, are the aristocrats of the waters, 

 and constitute the game-fishes of Britain. The 

 rivers and streams which they haunt lead us to 

 the finest and wildest scenery for only the pure 

 sparkling waters are congenial to them. Every 

 one loves running water, and there is a strange 

 fascination about it difficult to define. Men direct 

 their roads by the waterways, and for reasons far 

 other than those of trade and commerce. Only 

 the angler fully knows what these reasons are, and 

 he it is who sees a hundred sights and hears a 

 hundred sounds which are hidden from the 

 traveller on the dusty highway. Flogging the 

 trout-streams in spring, is surely the most fasci- 

 nating pastime in which man may indulge, and 

 truly blessed is he who has the opportunity. The 

 trout-fisher cannot but be a minute philosopher 

 " He must, he is, he cannot but be wise." This is 



