l fisherman. Of this class
there is an untold number. Their movements are keenly watched, and
often chronicled with surprising minuteness. They are liberally
scattered over every likely district from Teddington upwards, and there
is a degree of familiarity with their habits, on the part of local
observers, that at once whets our appetite and craves our admiration.
You hear about them often by the riverside. At six o'clock yesterday
morning a fish of 7 1/2 lb. appeared at the tail of the third stream
from the right bank and disported for the space of an hour amongst the
trembling bleak. He was rather short for his weight, and had
remarkably white teeth. Later on, another of 5 lb., full weight, with
a cast in his left eye, took a leisurely breakfast at the edge of
yonder scour. Three trout, that can only be spoken of as "whoppers,"
are beyond question in possession of this pool; others are to be found
between four and six of the afternoon at home in hovers, the
whereabouts of which are known to a nicety. The gambols and predatory
raids of this class of Thames trout afford great excitement and
pleasure to the observant passers-by, and there is no doubt in the
world that our friends are not always romancing with regard to them.
Yet it may not be gainsaid that the Thames trout of the professional
fisherman is but too often a Mysterious Unknown to the angler, and a
creature never to be dissected by mortal fingers.

A second species of Thames trout is that of the unsuccessful angler.
Hieing him blithely in the sweet spring morning to the waterside, the
angler beholds this fine specimen to great advantage--by the eye of
faith. His step quickens as, in all its magnificent proportions, it
flashes before his inner vision. Saw you ever such brilliant vesture,
such resplendent fins? By the time the sanguine sportsman has
clambered over the rails in the third meadow, the line of hope has run
out from the winch of imagination, and he has mentally struck that
trout, played it, brought it to the rim of the net, played it yet
again, and finally, after a battle heroic in its every detail, beheld
it gracefully curved in the friendly meshes, and transferred to a
grassy couch, to be the envy of his club and the boast of his family,
even to the third and fourth generation. This also is a numerous
species, for there is not a member of the great army of Thames anglers
who has not, in this manner, seen specimens during the first thre