216 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xm 



nor so small but that it is capable of main- 

 taining a few trout, then you may conclude 

 that what you have found may be a brook 

 may^ because there are also burns and becks 

 which would fulfil the conditions laid down. 

 As a rule, it is easy to distinguish a burn or 

 beck (except for the Hampshire beck they 

 are practically the same) from a brook. 

 The main point of difference is mud. Your 

 right-minded brook is rich in mud, while 

 your burn has little or none, and seeks to 

 make up for the deficiency by rocks and 

 shingle. The Hampshire beck, so far as I 

 know it, is a thing by itself, a sort of 

 miniature chalk stream readily to be dis- 

 tinguished from a brook by the clearness of 

 its water and the consistency of its bed, 

 which is hardly more muddy than a northern 

 burn. If there is mud, it is not a beck at 

 all, whatever the natives may call it, but a 

 brook. 



I have been at some pains to draw these 

 distinctions, because I do not wish it to be 

 thought that I am singing the praises of the 

 small stream in general. The burn has 

 received more than its share of adulation 

 from angling writers, and I cannot but 



