22 THE FRESH-WATER TROUT. 



of the body itself, at once indicate the -well-con- 

 ditioned fish. All anglers should confine their 

 operations to that period of the year when trout are 

 fit for the table, as it is unsportsman-like in the 

 highest degree to kill fish that are of no use. Such 

 being our opinion, we shall limit the consideration 

 of angling to the months in which trout are in 

 condition. 



During the last twenty years a great decrease 

 has taken place in the quantity of trout in our 

 southern streams, and any angler who has been in 

 the habit of frequenting regularly a particular stream 

 during that time must have noticed an almost annual 

 diminution in the number, and still more in the size, 

 of its finny inhabitants. This is an alarming fact, 

 and well worthy of the attention of the angling 

 community, as some of the most fruitful causes of 

 this disastrous result might be stopped. Some of 

 them, however, there is no help for, and the most 

 prejudicial of these is the drainage of the land, more 

 particularly of the hill-pastures for sheep. So long 

 as drainage was confined to the rivers' banks, its 

 effects were not so observable ; but now that it has 

 extended to the recesses of the mountains, whence 

 most of our rivers receive nine-tenths of their water, 

 and every hill, glen, and moor, is drained, it tells 

 severely upon the streams and their inhabitants. 

 The water, which used to find its way to the rivers 

 gradually, keeping them large and full for a con- 

 siderable time, is now conducted to them very soon 



