198 MAKING A FISHER1. 



in length to what may be considered as large 

 fish for the river, are long and lean, and lack- 

 ing in depth. They are not apparently old 

 trout, with long heads and sharp teeth black in 

 colour, and generally soft and flabby when 

 handled ; such cannibals as these should, of 

 course, everywhere and under all conditions, be 

 ruthlessly slain. The trout in such a stretch of 

 water are bright and silvery in colour, well 

 spotted, and prime in flesh, but narrow and 

 thin. This want of condition is as a rule due 

 to one and the same cause — called by some 

 overcrowding, and by others insufficiency of 

 food. The remedy is to net out as many as 

 may be considered desirable, and transfer them 

 to another part of the river where the food is 

 plentiful and the stock sparse. 

 Effects of Chalk streams are not so subject to severe 



floods as the North-country becks, rising in 

 some distant hill or mountain, pouring over 

 falls, tearing through rapids, and hurrying their 

 way down to the sea, or into larger rivers. Yet 

 when a heavy flood visits one of them the large 

 area of flat meadows covered with water gives 

 an appearance of desolation, and causes alarm 

 in the minds of those responsible for the 

 management of fisheries situated upon them. 

 This alarm, too, is frequently intensified by the 

 well-meaning, but generally ignorant condo- 



