XI 

 SEA TROUT 



AS the long summer daylight has slowly waned 

 with the past month or two the angler has 

 assiduously courted that sporting trout 

 which, having moved in deep waters, has at this 

 season returned to his inland haunts with the 

 mystery of the sea upon him. On the larger 

 waters of the north the angler has gone out morning 

 after morning in the early light, with only his trusty 

 boat-man. Rowing far and taking note of wind 

 and weather he has, if possible, set himself a silent 

 drift for miles with his back to the wind while he has 

 whipped the grey waters hour by hour with the 

 gaudy lures that are sufficient to draw S. trutta from 

 the depths. The salmon trout or, as he is more 

 generaUy known in the north, the sea trout, is the 

 most esteemed of all our fishes after the lordly 

 salmon. Sport he gives in plenty when he is hooked ; 

 and excitement and trial above all his kind in that 

 Ughtning moment ere he rejects, as he often does, 

 the lure which brought him from below. He is born 

 in fresh water like the salmon, and like the salmon 

 that is to be he passed the first epoch of his life- 

 history a little untraveUed trout knowing only the 



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