430 SALMON AND TROUT. 



names or so include all our streams which have any right 

 really to be considered as properly grayling waters ; and these, 

 with hardly an exception, belong to the southern and western 

 portions of the island. 



Some years ago the attempt to introduce grayling into the 

 upper part of the Thames was made by Mr. Warburton, who 

 turned in a considerable number of store-fish, but they never 

 became acclimatised, and at last practically disappeared. The 

 case is, no doubt, accurately stated by Mr. Blaine, when he 

 says, ' Grayling require other peculiarities of location besides 

 those of temperature, such as, for instance, the general character 

 of the water they inhabit, and certain circumstances in the nature 

 of its composition derived from its sources.' 



It is probably owing to the absence of some of these requi- 

 sites that the breeding of the fish in several rivers in which they 

 have been attempted to be naturalised has not been attended 

 with success. In some they soon disappeared ; in others they 

 remained, but never thrived ; while in some waters, though they 

 lived and at first increased, yet they were afterwards observed 

 to shift their quarters to different grounds, in most of which 

 cases it proved, as in the Test of Hampshire, that they 

 emigrated from above downwards, probably in search of deeper 

 and more tranquil waters. For the grayling-fisher cannot fail 

 to observe that this species does not, like the trout, affect very 

 rapid shallows and the coldest torrents ; on the contrary it 

 seems to thrive best where milder currents alternate with deep 

 and extensive pools. On the rapids, however — or * stickles,' 

 as they are termed — small grayling may frequently be found, 

 but the large fish rarely, except in the spawning season. 



The haunts of large grayling are ihe deepish and slow run- 

 ning tails of streams or pools, a few yards before the formation 

 of fresh shallows ; and here they will be found at all times, except 

 when spawning. 



It will thus be seen that grayling are fastidious, not to say 

 capricious, in their choice of habitats ; yet it has been proved 

 by experiment that they will thrive even in ponds the conditions 



