KILLING THE TROUT'S ENEMIES 361 



Besides the pike in his own reaches and their 

 numerous progeny, the lessee of the fishery has to 

 reckon with the vagaries and suffer from the laches of 

 his neighbours. There have been cases of owners of 

 challi-stream fisheries who have preserved and even 

 stocked with pike, but I am not here contemplating 

 such a dire state. Probably there is no means of 

 preventing any freeholder in this country from doing 

 this on his own water, but fortunately, with all their 

 faults, landowners generally are sane, and do not con- 

 template such suicidal policy as this to reduce the 

 value of their own property. If the river above or 

 below is not efficiently keepered, and the war against 

 the jack is not waged relentlessly and continuously, a 

 goodly proportion are certain to migrate to adjoining 

 water, where, in consequence of the comparative 

 scarcity of the genus Esox, or the liberal stocking with 

 young trout, the pike will find abundance of palatable 

 food ready to satisfy his appetite. 



An ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory, so let me 

 give some figures. Early in 1903, my friend Corrie 

 took something over a mile of water, a small pro- 

 portion on one side of the main Test and the remainder 

 on a by-stream. This fishery had been utterly 

 neglected for years, and contained a few, very few, 

 large trout and a great number of pike. In September 

 of the same year he put on a first-rate keeper, who for 

 two years devoted the greater portion of his time to 

 the slaughter of the jack. 



Stocking on an exceptionally liberal scale with two- 



