BRETON TROUT STREAMS 81 



again, they are marked to the south of 

 ChateauUn and Chateauneuf and finally 

 sink into insignificance beyond Gourin. 



Our blue pencil has traced out a rough 

 semicircle, in which lies the pick of the 

 Breton trout-fishing. In fact, this is a 

 vast nursery for the countless brooks and 

 streams which herein find their source. 

 This country keeps much of its old Breton 

 character, and can still afford good fishing 

 to those who have the leisure and keenness 

 to explore it for themselves. Ample time 

 is here an essential. Brittany is not the 

 place for the eager fisherman with only 

 ten days at his disposal. This advice is 

 backed strongly by an old friend's letter 

 which now lies before me. " Don't be the 

 means of luring many a young man on a 

 fool's errand, and thus make him lose a 

 short holiday. . . . You know " (so writes 

 my friend) " that even for us ' old Bretons ' 

 the fishing is hard to find and hard to get 

 at." Between the lines there seems to 

 lurk a dread of our blue pencil — that it 

 will up and mark precisely the exact 

 length of water whereon in days gone 

 by a dry-fished palmer has accomplished 



