The  "  timorous  trout"  is  a  fish  highly  valued,  not  less
for  its  agreeableness  as  an  article  of  food,  than  for  the
sport  it  affords  the  angler.     It  is  very  handsome,  both


TROUT.  11

in  form  and  colour  ;  not  unlike  the  salmon  in  shape,
and  weighing  from  three  to  twenty-five  pounds.
The  trout  delights  in  a  swift  stream,  seeking  the
shallows  in  summer,  and  the  deeps  and  still  waters  in
winter.  Its  favourite  haunts,  says  Mr.  Bainbridge,
are  the  junction  of  two  streams — the  tails  of  currents,
below  bridges,  near  old  ruins,  and  pieces  of  rock,
where  the  roots  of  trees  are  exposed  by  the  bank  having
fallen  in — and  under  hollow  banks.  Large  trout,  as
Sir  Humphry  Davy  remarks,  always  hide  themselves
under  the  same  bank,  stone,  or  weed,  and  come  out
from  their  permanent  habitations  to  feed.  A  favourite
place  for  a  large  trout,  in  rivers,  is  an  eddy,  behind  a
rock  or  stone,  where  flies  and  small  fishes  are  carried
by  the  force  of  the  current.  And  such  haunts  are  rarely
unoccupied,  for  if  a  fish  is  taken  out  of  them,  its  place
is  soon  supplied  by  another,  who  quits  for  it  a  less  con-
venient situation.  The  young  trout  fry  may  be  seen
throughout  the  day,  sporting  on  the  shallow  gravelly
scours  of  the  stream^  where  the  want  of  sufiicient
depth  of  water,  or  the  greater  caution  of  larger  and
older  fish,  prevents  their  appearance.  Trout  begin  to
feed  in  March,  and  are  in  season  till  October  or  Novem-
ber; but  they  are  finest  from  the  end  of  May  till  to-
wards the  end  of  September.
