64 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



England are under rules of the kind 

 mentioned. The outcome is astonishing. 

 Wherever there is a limit to the angler's 

 privilege of catching and keeping, the 

 trout adapt themselves to it with re- 

 markable uniformity. One June day, on 

 a stretch of the Test where the standard 

 is three -quarters -of- a -pound, an angler 

 had the good fortune to catch fifty trout. 

 Thirty were just over the standard. 

 Each of the other twenty the professional 

 attendant declared to be just under ; but 

 the difference between "just over" and 

 "just under" was so slight as to be scarcely 

 perceptible. This incident on the Test, 

 which is not exceptional, seems to show 

 that trout are extraordinarily adaptable 

 to the rational requirements of man. 

 They fulfil his specifications almost to 

 an ounce. They do so from a necessity 

 which on reflection becomes obvious. If 

 on any water all fish under three-quarters- 

 of- a- pound, for example, are allowed to 

 live, the water must at all times have 

 many fish approximately of that weight. 



