164 JUNE 



of Scottish and English trout when hooked must 

 be accounted for in some other way. The English 

 fish (of course, the allusion is only to fish in 

 the southern counties) make a brave show at first, 

 having a specially embarrassing knack of rushing 

 straight down stream towards the angler's feet, 

 causing a disastrous slack in the line, unless it is 

 smartly drawn downwards through the rings. If 

 he does not run towards you, he makes a spirited 

 dash up or across the stream, and nothing could stir 

 the nerves more pleasantly than his conduct so far. 

 But supposing the angler to be man enough to hold 

 his own through this initial display, there is very 

 little more to follow. Provided the fish does not 

 catch sight of his foe, and plunge frantically into a 

 bed of weeds (trout will seldom weed themselves 

 unless they see the fisherman), he yields after the 

 first rush with little more spirit than a lubberly 

 chub. A Scottish trout, on the other hand, will 

 fight to his last gasp, leaping often from the water 

 and running as strong after a few seconds' repose 

 as at the first rush. Nobody with experience of 

 northern and southern fish can have the slightest 

 hesitation in affirming that, were an angler to begin 

 operations on the shore of a loch where the trout 



