322 SALMON AND TROUT. 
migration would probably be the very close of the year, that 
they may have the advantage of cool weather for travelling, and 
time to settle down in their new quarters before the breeding 
season. 
Had I the direction of a ‘ Grayling-extension’ scheme, I 
should wish above all things, without prejudice to the claims of 
humbler streams, to have the experiment tried. on a large scale 
inthe Thames. If my memory serves me, a few were turned 
in near Reading some fifty years ago, but nothing came of it, 
though a solitary fish was captured three years after. To be 
successful, the attempt should be made in several successive 
years and in three or four well-chosen places. I have seen 
little of the Thames of late years, but having once known the 
river thoroughly from Streatley to Richmond, I can recall every 
feature of sundry reaches which formerly struck me as suitable 
for grayling. For instance, there is a fine ford immediately 
below Maple-Durham lock ; another about a mile above Spade 
Oak, where the old buck stage formerly stood at the meeting of 
the streams ; and miles oflikely water between Maidenhead and 
Monkey Island. Penton Hook, again, though not clear in my 
mind’s eye, occurs to me as fine grayling water, neither too 
brisk nor too dull. No doubt the pike in the Thames are a 
serious obstacle, though not, I think, an insurmountable one ; 
but, on the other hand, to introduce a new and valuable fish into 
the river beloved by the millions of London would be no trifling 
public service. 
There are however plenty of other streams, from the low- 
lands of Scotland to Kent and Sussex, where the grayling might 
be introduced with every prospect of success. Among those 
nearest to London I should name the Stour, and perhaps the 
Darenth. The Driffield Beck below Wandsford Mill seems 
exactly fitted to carry grayling side by side with trout. 
But I do not pretend to enumerate the streams in which the 
experiment should be tried. I wish rather to set angling clubs 
and riparian proprietors to work in what seems to me a most 
promising field. Especially let it be remembered that the 
