416 SALMON AND TROUT. 
aspect of the case that this holds true. Streams polluted by 
mine water not only cease to contain fish and look disgusting, 
but are a positive source of danger to the health of the popu- 
lation living upon the banks, who, as well as the cattle, often 
partially poison themselves by drinking the tainted water. 
WORM FISHING FOR BROWN TROUT. 
Thanks to a great extent to the late Mr. Stewart, worm 
fishing for trout has been of late years rescued from a position 
of obscurity, not to say contempt, and elevated into one of the 
recognised branches of scientific angling. It was formerly 
supposed that worm fishing could only be practised with 
success in rivers or streams when in a state of partial flood. 
The fisherman, wielding a short stiff rod with a single large 
hook at the end of extra coarse tackle, used to walk down the 
river banks, when the water was supposed to be sufficiently 
discoloured, fishing before him or under him the likely looking 
holes, and hauling out, by sheer force and with the smallest pos- 
sible amount of law, any unlucky victim which the purblinding 
condition of its own element was mainly instrumental in trans- 
ferring to ours. Thanks, I say, in a great measure, to Mr. 
Stewart and his teaching, all this is now changed, and, although 
with improved hooks and finer tackle, the worm-fisher will still 
expect under many circumstances to make a good basket in 
full or flood water, he regards as his red-letter days a scorching 
summer sun, and a water so bright and clear as to make fly 
fishing, except very early and late, next to an impossibility. 
Making the best of these unpropitious circumstances, the 
sagacious angler leaves his fly rod at home, and betakes him- 
self to worm fishing. Equipped with wading boots, or, better, 
wading trousers, he enters the stream, usually preferring a good 
broad sheet of water, not too deep, and, moving gently and 
cautiously, with a long, light, stiffish rod, he casts his bait well 
