MAY 123 



of the stream changes, the size of the 

 trout changes also. The Provost tells me 

 that he used to fish in the Moness sixty 

 years ago, and that then, while half- 

 pounders and even pounders were not 

 rare, the average weight of the fish was 

 fully quarter- of-a-pound. He attributes 

 the decline to the fact that in the old 

 days the land through which the stream 

 flows was largely under the plough, the 

 water, consequently, having a supply of 

 worms and grubs ; and that, the land 

 being out of tillage, the trout have now 

 practically nothing but flies to feed upon. 

 It would, of course, be economically 

 unreasonable to call for ploughing of the 

 moorlands in order that trout should 

 flourish ; but the Provost's remark, in- 

 dubitably sanctioning the belief that the 

 fish grow as they are fed, has an incidental 

 significance of moment. There was a 

 great abundance of aquatic insects on the 

 Moness, and I have noticed the same 

 plenty on many another mountain stream. 

 If one may judge by the infrequence of 



