354 THE ANGLER-NATUEALIST. 



ling is a remarkably local and even comparatively rare 

 fishj thriving best in rivers the bottoms of which are com- 

 posed principally of sandy gravel or loam — a soil highly 

 favourable to the production of the insect-food on which 

 it in a great measure subsists. Rocky or stony bottoms 

 are very inimical to its breeding ; and this is probably 

 the reason why^ though flourishing in many Continental 

 waters^ none exist in those of Ireland or Scotland. In- 

 deedj even in England, a dozen names or so include aU 

 our streams which have any right really to be considered 

 as properly Grayling- waters ; and these, with hardly an ex- 

 ception, belong to the southern and western portions of 

 the island. The fact is no doubt accurately stated by 

 Mr. Blaine when he says, " Grayling require other pecu- 

 liarities of location besides those of temperature, such as, 

 for instance, the general character of the water they in- 

 habit, and certain circumstances in the nature of its com- 

 position derived from its sources. It is probably owing to 

 the abstraction of some of these requisites that the breed- 

 ing of the fish in several rivei's in which they have been 

 attempted to be naturalized has not been attended with 

 success. In some they soon disappeared; in others they 

 remained, but never tlirived ; while in some waters though 

 they lived and at first increased, yet they were afterwards 

 observed to shift their quarters to different grounds, in 

 most of which cases it proved, as in the Test of Hampshire, 

 that they migrated from above downwards, probably in 

 search of deeper and more tranquil waters : for the angler 



