DOWN THE BECK 37 



out of shelter or into bright sunshine, incautiously 

 thrusting his head over the bank, or interfering in 

 any way with the skyline, will certainly betray the 

 angler. He may gain a slight advantage over their 

 craft, however, by remembering that their habit is 

 to feed with their heads to the stream. A beginner 

 may rest assured that the golden secret of success 

 in trout-fishing is to keep well out of the fishes' 

 sight by availing himself of every natural cover, a 

 tree-trunk, bush, &c, or by approaching the stream, 

 if he is very much exposed, in a stooping position. 

 He must, for the most part, learn, by observation, the 

 many singular habits and characteristics of his quarry, 

 and here it is that the old fisherman excels the tyro. 

 The remarkable manner in which the fish's colours 

 change with the nature of the stream in which it lives, 

 is one of these curiosities of the trout. There is all 

 the difference in the world between a fish taken from 

 the chalky streams of Wilts and one that inhabits 

 the dark peaty burns of Devon or South Wales, 

 while both are inferior in beauty to the red-spotted 

 lusty fish of a Nottinghamshire river. Internally 

 they are of two types, one with red flaky flesh, like 

 salmon, the other white ; these variations, however, 

 frequently run into each other. The practical 

 fisherman only can appreciate the great diversity 

 of activity which exists in fish of different sizes 



