such as the Kennet at Reading, the Pang, the lower Colne, and others,
become surrounded with houses and the trout no longer haunt the
_embouchure_, so the tendency is for fewer trout to get into the
Thames. Still, places like the Windrush, the Evenlode, and the other upper
tributaries hold rather more trout than they did, as they are better
looked after; and the Fairford Colne is still a beautiful trout stream.
For some reason, however, the Thames trout do not seem fond of the upper
waters, where if found they seem to keep entirely in the highly aerated
parts by the weirs, but mainly haunt the lower ones from Windsor
downwards, and one was recently caught in the tidal waters below the
bridge. It is very difficult to see why there are so few above Oxford, or
from Abingdon to Reading. It is not because they are caught, for very few
are caught. A friend of mine who had lived on the river near Clifton
Hampden for some eight years, could only remember eight trout being caught
in that time. I thought I was going to have one once. I was fishing for
chub with a bumble bee, and a great spotted trout rose to it in a way
which made me hope I was going to have a trophy to boast of for life. But
he "rose short," and I saw him no more. I believe _all_ the brooks
which rise in the chalk hills of the Thames Valley have trout in them. One
runs under the railway line at Steventon. A resident there had quite a
number of tamed trout in the conduit which took the stream under the line,
and used to feed them with worms as a show. At the head waters of the
Lockinge brook, close to the springs, I saw the trout spawning on New
Year's Day. The big fish had wriggled up into the very shallowest water,
and were lying with their back fins and tails out, I suppose from some
instinct either that this water is the most highly aerated, or because
floods do less harm on a shallow, or for both reasons combined. At Long
Wittenham, though I never saw a trout in the river (they are, however,
taken there), Admiral Clutterbuck recently had a fine old stew pond in the
picturesque old grounds of the Manor House cleaned out, and stocked it