FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 321 
easier to manage than the grasshopper, as you may give your 
fish more time. But, after all, give me an open ford, a clear 
cast, and the artificial fly. 
This irregularity of ‘location’ is very puzzling, especially 
when we consider how closely some of the streams whence they 
are absent resemble others in which they abound. The hypo- 
thesis which regards the grayling as a foreign fish, imported by 
the monks at some unknown date, seems quite untenable. It 
is, however, more to the purpose to inquire whether these valu- 
able fish might not with advantage be introduced into many 
waters where they are hitherto unknown ; and on this question 
Thave no doubts. Let us have grayling in as many counties 
as the nature of the streams will permit—at all events, in many 
more than at present. There are some first-rate trout streams 
into which, ‘on the principle of ‘letting well alone,’ I should 
hesitate to introduce them, for fear of seriously reducing the 
supply of trout food. It should, however, be remembered that 
‘in shallow, rapid reaches of water, and wherever the stream is 
violent as well as deep, grayling will not rest. Nor do they ever 
work up stream, having (unlike the trout) a tendency to drop 
down from the upper stretches of water when these grow 
shallower till they reach the fords, when they find themselves 
at home—calm, even-flowing reaches, of moderate depth and 
speed. Thus the effect of their competition for food is neces- 
sarily limited, while the advantage of their neighbourhood to 
the trout—as, for instance, in the best Derbyshire streams—is 
found not only in the possession of two game fish for sport or 
the table instead of one, but in the extending the legitimate 
angling season through the autumn and winter months. 
I have myself had no experience in the artificial breeding 
of grayling, and cannot pretend to say whether their introduc- 
tion to new waters would be best achieved by this method 
or by moving a considerable number of moderate-sized fish. 
But with our present knowledge and appliances either plan 
might surely be carried out with little difficulty. If the fish 
are to be transported alive, the best time for their compulsory 
L ¥ 
