20 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



Dove will therefore apply to streams that in no other respect 

 could be compared with it. 



It is not the Dove to which I am bound. My stream is 

 not half so well known either to anglers or to the non- 

 angling world. It has a name nevertheless, and appears 

 accurately marked upon the Ordnance Map. Let us for 

 convenience sake call it the Brawl. In most instances you 

 will not err greatly in disliking the fisherman who refuses to 

 tell his brother where to find sport. It is true, necessity 

 has no law, and the necessity is often laid upon one, sadly 

 against his will, of withholding information which might be 

 of service to a brother angler. He may be the best and 

 most generous hearted fellow in the world, but he may lack 

 that essential backbone of wisdom, discretion. 



A few years ago a north country nobleman generously gave 

 ordinarily decent persons leave to fish a well-stocked pike 

 water — a privilege which many used and enjoyed. One day 

 the pike were " on the move/' as the saying goes, and two 

 tradesmen who had secured the required permission were 

 able by a liberal employment of live bait to row ashore at 

 night with nearly two hundredweight of slain fish. Worse 

 than that, a local paper made the achievement the subject 

 of high eulogium, and congratulated " our worthy townsmen " 

 on their prowess. What was the result ? The noble owner 

 himself assured me he received two hundred and forty 

 applications in three weeks, and that he would never more 

 allow other than personal friends to cast line into the water. 

 And he has kept his word. 



Therefore the stream now in question shall be named the 

 Brawl, and I give fair warning that the rest of my nomen- 

 clature in this chapter is also drawn from the source 



