THE GEAYLING 



there a grayling, poised in the clear, limpid stream, or moved 

 in alarm as my shadow fell across the waters. 



I have seen and crossed a number of rivers in England contain- 

 ing trout, grayling, or both — the Swale, Tees, Mdd, Wharfe, 

 Aire, Calder, Derwent — aU a part of the system of the lire, all 

 going to make the Ouse of the Humber, but the Ure is the only 

 one I have really fished for grayling, and it seemed to me the 

 most dehcious little river that one could imagine in dreams, some- 

 thing to fall in love with, and to chasten with a strong affection. 

 Here I found a perfect demonstration of my own, but not original 

 theory of what constitutes angling ; not fishing alone, but all the 

 beauty and joys of beneficent l!fature that fell to my lot. So in 

 anghng on the Ure, i£ I had never seen a grayling or a trout I 

 should have esteemed myself the luckiest of anglers. 



The Ure is essentially a Yorkshire river, and if you chmb to 

 nearly half a mile near Shunner Fell in the wild regions between 

 Westmorland and York, you may find the head- waters of the 

 little river that rolls on, laughing, ripphng to the sea. On its 

 way it picks up the Eibble, Beck, Hardraw Beck and Gayle Beck 

 above Hawes, and below many more. You may find grayling 

 almost anywhere, at Hawes, Bainbridge, Aysgarth, Eedmire, 

 Wensley, and Masham, near which I recall some fine pheasant 

 shooting, Wensley and others. In nearly all these places are 

 angling clubs, as the Eipon Angling Club, the Askrigg Club and 

 the Wensleydale AngUng Association. 



The grayling is one of the most esthetic of fishes ; a first 

 cousin of the clan of trouts, he looks like a herring at first glance, 

 but has a highly coloured dorsal fin suggestive of that of the 

 great sailfish of Madagascar. Jordan says, ' A very noble game 

 fish, characteristic of sub-Arctic streams,' St. Ambroise, the 

 Bishop of Milan, termed it the ' flower of fishes,' and poets have 

 written of it from early days. The Canadian Arctic grayling 

 {Thymallus signifer) was discovered by an Englishman on the 

 Sir John Frankhn Expedition of 1819, and was named by Sir 

 John Eichardson, who thus writes of it : 



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