Trout.—­Of the game-fishes the brown trout is the most popular, for it is spread over the whole of Great Britain and most of Europe, wherever there are waters suited to it.  It is a fine sporting fish and is excellent for the table, while in some streams and lakes it grows to a very considerable size, examples of 16 lb from southern rivers and 20 lb from Irish and Scottish lakes being not unknown.  One of the signs of its popularity is that its habits and history have produced some very animated controversies.  Some of the earliest discussions were provoked by the liability of the fish to change its appearance in different surroundings and conditions, and so at one time many a district claimed its local trout as a separate species.  Now, however, science admits but one species, though, to such well-defined varieties as the Loch Leven trout, the estuarine trout and the gillaroo, it concedes the right to separate names and “races.”  In effect all, from the great ferox of the big lakes of Scotland and Ireland to the little fingerling of the Devonshire brook, are one and the same—­Salmo fario.

Wet-Fly Fishing for Trout.—­Fly-fishing for trout is divided into three kinds:  fishing with the artificial fly sunk or “wet,” fishing with it floating or “dry” and fishing with the natural insect.  Of the two first methods the wet fly is the older and may be taken first.  Time was when all good anglers cast their flies downstream and thought no harm.  But in 1857 W.C.  Stewart published his Practical Angler, in which he taught that it paid better to fish up-stream, for by so doing the angler was not only less likely to be seen by the trout but was more likely to hook his fish.  The doctrine was much discussed and criticized, but it gradually won adherents, until now up-stream fishing is the orthodox method where it is possible.  Stewart was also one of the first to advocate a lighter rod in place of the heavy 12 ft. and 13 ft. weapons that were used in the North in his time.  There are still many men who use the long rod for wet-fly fishing in streams, but there are now more who find 10 ft. quite enough for their purpose.  For lake-fishing from a boat, however, the longer rod is still in many cases preferred.  In fishing rivers the main art is to place the right flies in the right places and to let them come naturally down with the stream.  The right flies may be ascertained to some extent from books and from local wisdom, but the right places can only be learnt by experience.  It does not, however, take long to acquire “an eye for water” and that is half the battle, for the haunts of trout in rapid rivers are very much alike.  In lake-fishing chance has a greater share in bringing about success, but here too the right fly and the right place are important; the actual management of rod, line and flies, of course, is easier, for there is no stream to be reckoned with.  Though there is little left to be said about wet-fly fishing where the fly is