THE TROUT'S ASSASSIN .
The trouble with some few of the streams, though not all, to the immediate north of London is; of a different kind, and the cure must be sought in science, not in mere public opinion. The only fish that survives in one of these is the stickleback. All the trout die of a microbic malady, and though the diagnosis has now been completely verified no remedy has been found or, I think, so much as suggested. Indeed one specialist, asked for some suggestion of the cause of the infection, could go no further than the theory that it might be due to tins thrown into the river higher up. The destructive agent is named after the salmon, but is hardly likely to be conveyed in a tin of salmon from the Pacific ! On this head it may interest fishermen to know that one of the heaviest trout caught by one master fisherman had just devoured a great part of a tin of indifferent bully beef thrown into the river by a villager. Even when stuffed with this too solid food he rose to the dry fly.
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