i68 ON SURREY HILLS. 



I was informed afterwards that the fish had been 

 so frightened by the threshing of that would-be 

 angler, that he had retreated to the utmost limit of 

 his hover under the bank, and there he had remained, 

 as only a trout will remain. The cute rustic knew 

 this would be so, and he had simply gone down to 

 the spot, taken off his shoes, and tucked up his 

 trousers, and " groped him out." That is how most 

 of the great trout are captured, but I never saw one 

 that had been groped for that was not shown with 

 a hook in his mouth. A gut hook does not cost 

 much, and it looks so very much better. "Vile 

 poaching ? " No, that was waste land where the 

 big trout was got out. 



And after all, when a fish of that size is in a stream 

 he becomes entirely carnivorous, and feeds on the 

 smaller members of his own species, to say nothing 

 of the way he gobbles up spawn when it is the season 

 for the trout running up for the spawning. So the 

 sooner the great fellow is out of a brook or pond 

 the better. I have seen many large trout captured, 

 beautiful fish. Some of them had made their homes 

 in places where you would be more likely to look 

 for water-voles than for trout. But, with very few 



