FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 305 



'scenes sung by him who sings no more.' On this moorland a 

 large pool was formed, of perhaps thirty-five acres, its forma- 

 tion aided by the course of the burn. The moss-hags which 

 had quaked along the winding banks of the streamlet were 

 scooped away till the gravel below was reached, and the peaty 

 soil was used to form a raised barrier round the extensive 

 hollow, so as to deepen the waters still further. About five 

 years after this artificial lake had been formed and stocked 

 from the bit burnie that fed it, I had the permission of the 

 owner, George Witham, Esq. — a name then well known in the 

 scientific world, but my tale is some forty years old — to try the 

 fly one summer's evening on its waters. I was very fortunate, 

 either in my day or my choice of flies, or both ; for though 

 I had been told that the fish could rarely be coaxed to rise, 

 I killed in a short evening's fishing, with my Scotch lake flies, 

 eleven trout, of which the smallest weighed above a pound, the 

 largest two and three-quarters. 



I made a yet heavier basket in a rough afternoon the following 

 year. Finer fish I have rarely seen, small-headed, hog-backed, 

 and strong on the line. They took the fly in the grandest 

 style; showing snout, back fin and tail, and coming down on 

 their prey with such certainty that I missed but one fish in 

 each day. The water, as well as parts of the bottom, being 

 darkish, and the depth considerable, their outside hue was 

 clouded gold rather than silver, but they cut as red as trout of 

 the Thames. 



I know a similar instance in a deep reservoir on the Brown Clee 

 Hill, fed by a petty brooklet. The fish in the pool are Patagonians, 

 and not more large than good — those of the brook of the small 

 dimensions suited to their residence. Thus there is but one step 

 between the two questions of breeding and feeding. A well-fed 

 trout will, generally speaking, be a good trout, and a large 

 range of water will supply its inhabitants with at least a respect- 

 able dietary. In this way mills do the angler good service ; the 

 fish in the mill dam have, so to say, a larger pasture, and mostly 

 weigh heavier than those in the shallow reaches of the Thames. 



