grayling. 



GRAYLING. 175 



rise more freely. Although they do not go to 

 weed with the same pertinacity as trout, yet 

 they try the hold of a hook more, and unless 

 hooked in the leathery rim forming the outer 

 margin of the mouth, get away more frequently 

 than trout. If all the fishermen on a stream 

 are also shooters, and are so wedded to that 

 form of sport as not to be able to spare a day 

 from the moors, the stubble, or the coverts, it 

 is useless to provide grayling for them. 



What are the disadvantages, real and ima- Disad- 



. . . t r 1 ■ 1 vantages of 



ginary, to be anticipated from the introduction introducing 

 of grayling ? The one most forcibly urged, and, 

 if proved, the most serious one, is that grayling 

 feed on trout ova. This has been stated so 

 frequently and so positively, that I have devoted 

 some time and trouble to work out the point. 

 From the experience of many years on the 

 Test, one conclusion, and one only, can be 

 arrived at, viz. — that the assertion has been 

 made originally on the authority of some one 

 whose observations have been inaccurate. 

 Many of those who dislike, or affect to dislike, 

 grayling in a trout stream, have repeated the 

 statement without either corroborating by in- 

 dependent experiment, or acknowledging that 

 this so-called fact is based on the mere ipse 

 dixit of some one whose assertions they have 

 heard, or whose writings they have read. 



