224 TROUT FISHING 



end of April they are in the places that 

 were probably their haunts the season 

 before. There, if not caught, they 

 remain until the first early-autumn flood, 

 on the coming of which they begin to 

 move up-stream. If the flood is con- 

 siderable they congregate at the mouths 

 of tributaries. They are extremely 

 voracious at that time. Many of them, 

 when caught, are found to be filled to 

 the lips with worms and grubs and flies. 

 Their hunger, I think, is due to the 

 demands made upon them by the rapidly- 

 ripening eggs and milt. Soon after that, 

 as is proper, they pass into the care of 

 the gamekeepers, and the angler has 

 for a few months sheathed his rod. 



One cannot so closely observe the 

 habits of trout in the great waters that 

 are still. This lends a pleasant mystery 

 to the lake. The pleasure would be 

 abated if the mystery were solved or 

 lessened ; yet, such is the perversity of 

 man, I have been constantly trying to 

 solve it. 



