276 INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON FISH. 



and gasping, upon his broad side, with his brilliant 

 orange pectorals quivering in the breeze. His death 

 was duly honoured by a lusty whoop on the part of 

 my friend, who exulted little less in his victory than 

 Wellington did in that of Waterloo ; and on hanging 

 him upon my pocket-scale, he was found to weigh just 

 2 Ibs. But in this part of the river such are few and far 

 between. 



In the Coquet, as in most other rivers, the farther 

 we proceed downwards towards the sea, the heavier the 

 trout become ; because in the stony beds of the higher 

 waters of all rivers, fewer worms, caddies, slugs, and 

 other bottom-baits, are to be found, than in such as run 

 over alluvial soils in the warmer parts of the country. 

 And as it is a well-known fact, that different qualities 

 of soil produce oxen and sheep varying widely in size 

 and quality of flesh ; so in like manner the quality of 

 soil through which a river runs has a marked influence 

 upon the size and quality of trout, by affording all kinds 

 of bottom-food in greater variety and abundance. The 

 plump-shouldered, deep-bellied, small-headed denizen 

 of the shady deeps in the mead blazoned over with the 

 silver daisy and golden buttercups, is a very different 

 personage, in his brilliant stars and portly presence, 

 from his lank, large-headed, sooty brethren, inhabiting 

 the inky pools of the moorland burn, surrounded only 

 by heathy wastes and barren peat-mosses. The in- 

 fluence of food on the size and quality of trout is as 

 strongly exemplified in the Coquet as in any other river 

 I am acquainted with. Those in the lower part of its 



