GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 57 



CHAPTER V. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



THE principal angling rivers of Yorkshire are the Driffield 

 Beck, the Wharfe, Aire, Derwent, Rye, Ure, Ribble, Nidd, 

 Swale, and Codbeck. With the exception of the first- 

 named, all these waters present the same natural charac- 

 teristics, running merrily over a rocky or gravel bottom in 

 a succession of shallow streams and dubs, with the rare 

 alternation of a deep pool. The Driffield Beck, on the other 

 hand, with one or two smaller streams in the same part of 

 the county, is a slow running river, resembling the chalk 

 streams of Hampshire, and the trout in its waters give a 

 much heavier average weight than those of any other stream 

 in the north of England. The Driffield fish are not to be 

 caught by a novice ; the angler must have served an appren- 

 ticeship to dry-fly fishing, and must carefully consider wind 

 and weather, and be an adept in what is, perhaps, after all 

 the most difficult and at the same time the most necessary 

 of all the points in the angler's craft, the art of keeping 

 out of sight. 



Of the other rivers, the best is the delightful Wharfe, 

 hurrying impetuously over its rocky bed in the higher 

 reaches or sweeping gracefully round "Bolton's old monastic 

 pile," where the angler pauses constantly in his craft that 

 his whole soul may take in the glorious scenes which Nature 

 and her partner Time have provided. The Aire, a compara- 



