30 



THE FRESH-WATER TROUT. 



filling a basket with trout, at least in some of our 

 southern streams open to the public, when they are 

 low and clear, is a feat of which any angler may be 

 proud. To do so he must oppose craft to craft, and 

 cunning to cunning, and must study very closely the 

 habits and instincts of the trout. Angling is in fact 

 every day becoming more difficult, and consequently 

 better worthy of being followed as a scientific amuse- 

 ment. So far from looking upon the increase of 

 anglers with alarm, it ought to be regarded with 

 satisfaction : the more trout are fished for, the more 

 wary they become ; the more wary they are, the 

 more skill is required on the angler's part ; and as 

 the skill an amusement requires constitutes one of 

 its chief attractions, angling is much better sport 

 now than it was fifty years ago. 



