52 FUDDLING CHUB 



till, last year (1897), Mr. Pophain brought back from 

 the Yenesei a clutch of eggs of the curlew sandpiper, 

 together with the parent birds. Nestlings of the knot 

 have been found many years ago in Melville Island, 

 and lately in Grinnell Land, so it seems merely a ques- 

 tion of time when this little traveller also must yield up 

 its domestic secrets. 



XV 



Owners of trout-streams, especially those of Hertford- 

 Fuddiing shire, are often driven to the verge of despair 

 by the irrepressible increase of coarse fish. 

 Dace and chub are almost as inimical to the welfare 

 and abundance of trout as is the pirate pike. Their 

 hostility is not overt, but they consume a vast amount 

 of good food which ought to descend into nobler gullets, 

 and no doubt they devour a quantity of trout spawn. 

 Pike may be snared and shot ; to keep them within 

 limits is merely a question of diligence ; but no amount 

 of diligence will rid a stream of dace and chub. A 

 certain number may be taken in nets; but where 

 willows and alders abound to the advantage of the 

 stream, effective netting cannot be carried out. 



Now dace and chub are chiefly known in the southern 

 and Midland counties ; but it is in the north that wise 

 men have devised an insidious way of ridding them- 

 selves of the pest. Chub, locally known as 'skellies,' 

 exist naturally in great quantities in that noble stream 

 the Cumberland Eden, and here salmon and trout 

 anglers avail themselves of the process known by the 



