58 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



captures are specially recorded in the 

 public journals. 



How is that ? How can it be said of 

 any stream that its trout are as plentiful 

 as ever, or at least as plentiful as need be, 

 if it is admitted that the very large fish 

 which were once common have become 

 as noteworthy as golden eagles ? Are 

 large trout more easily caught than small 

 ones ? 



These questions will be put as if 

 they carried their own answers ; but 

 the implications are erroneous. Angling 

 is a pursuit in which knowledge comes 

 but slowly and wisdom has lingered for 

 centuries. We sport -loving people of 

 Britain have been fishing for untold 

 generations ; yet our natural history of 

 the subject is superficial. We have been 

 assuming that our skill is great in pro- 

 portion to the weight of the individual 

 fish in our creels. This has occasionally 

 been an assumption not less gratifying 

 than sincere ; but it has always been 

 thoroughly unscientific. Large trout in 



