193 MAKING A FISHERY. 



the number of these certainly does not increase, 

 any decrease is, as a rule, due rather to the 

 direct and frequent attacks of the enemy than 

 to any tendency to move away into a more 

 favourable place. If the intended victim per- 

 ceives the danger in time to elude the jaws of 

 the pike, it makes a dash into the nearest weed 

 bed, and is safe for the moment. Small trout 

 are not often found in this character of water, 

 but whether their absence is due to deep 

 still water not suiting them, or to the fact 

 of any frequenting such water, having been 

 devoured by the pike, is a question open to 

 discussion. 



Fear of another deadly enemy — man — seems 

 to be a characteristic of trout in a state of 

 nature. Thus on a length of a stream seldom 

 fished, and on the banks of which there are few 

 pedestrians, it is often impossible to get within 

 casting distance of a fish, whether feeding on 

 or near the surface, or close to the bed of the 

 river. On another stretch of the same river, 

 where there is a footpath, or a carriage road, 

 or where anglers are continually walking up and 

 down, a trout will, even in the brightest and 

 calmest weather, take no notice of a passer-by 

 until he is within a few yards. If rising it will 

 slowly sink down in the water, and as soon as 

 the man has got a few yards above or below 



