THE TROUT. 71 



Of the nature and habits of the trout, Walton says : "And 

 you are to note that he continues many months out of season ; 

 for it may be observed of the trout, that he is like the buck 

 or the ox, that will not be fat in many months, though he go 

 in the very same pastures that horses do, which will be fat in 

 one mouth. And so you may observe, that most other fishes 

 recover strength and grow sooner fat and in season than the 

 trout doth. 



" And next you are to note, that till the sun gets to such a 

 height as to warm the earth and water, the trout is sick and 

 lean, and lousy, and unwholesome ; for you shall in winter 

 find him to have a big head, and then to be lank and thin, and 

 lean ; at which time many of them having sticking to them 

 sags, or trout-lice ; which is a kind of worn, in shape like a 

 clove, or pin with a big head, and sticks close to him and 

 sucks his moisture ; those I think the trout breeds himself; 

 and never thrives till he frees himself from them, which is 

 when warm weather comes ; and then as he grows stronger, 

 he gets from the dead still water into the sharp stream and 

 the gravel, and there rubs off these worms or lice ; and then 

 as he grows stronger, so he gets him into swifter and swifter 

 streams, and there lies at the watch for any fly or minnow 

 that comes near him." 



The North Country Angler, an English writer, says: " The 

 burn (or common) trout, grows fast if it has plenty of food 

 and good water ; several experiments have been made in 

 fish-ponds ; some fed by river water, some by clear fluent 

 springs, into which the young have been put about five or six 

 mouths old that is, in September or October, reckoning 

 from April, when they come out of their spawning beds, at 

 which time they will be six or seven inches long ; and though 

 there has been but little difference in their age and size when 

 put into the pond, yet in 18 months after there will be a sur 

 prising change. I have seen a pon.d drained ten months after 



