OF GRAYLINGS, LARGE AND SMALL 241 



moor-hen. She is a small-minded fish, a riser- 

 at-nothing, a mere breaker of surfaces, a ring- 

 producer, a maker of deceptive sounds, a frog. A 

 jelly-fish is a better fish. I had rather see a dog 

 fetching sticks than a little grayling at play on 

 a good gravel. She is as distressing to me as a 

 Candidate's child that lisps the praises of his dada 

 to a mass meeting. Politics is a man's job. 

 Rising is the business of large earnest fishes. If 

 the little grayling came up in search of food I 

 might have more respect for her. But she doesn't. 

 The less there is on the water the more eagerly 

 does she rise, which is absurd. 



The anguish of a blank day is considerable, but 

 it is tenfold keener if at every odd moment one 

 has been tricked into supposing that the fly was 

 coming on. That is the little grayling's idea of 

 giving one a pleasant time. 



It is one which she shares with the daces alone. 

 With the daces ! 



No other fishes do this. Salmon do not ; pike 

 do not. Who has ever seen crayfishes messing 

 about after nothing at all, on top of all the best 

 glides ? Do carps do it ? No. Perches ? No. 

 Roaches? I don't know. Perhaps. Add them, 

 if you will, to the others. A precious trinity. 

 Barbels? Do they do it? No. They live on 

 barbel baits, which they suck from anglers' hooks 



