THE RIVER KEEPER: CARING FOR AN ANGLER'S TROUT STREAM. By Richard Pease.

1982 1st edition. 8vo (145 x 222mm). Pp136. B/w photographs and illustrations. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

Drawn from Col. Pease's experience of fifteen years as a river-keeper on the Wiltshire Avon. "For some fifteen years Colonel Pease has been river keeper on a chalk stream and his 'leisure' has been put to very active use, facing and coping with the many difficulties that beset a lowland populated region. As a man who has been addicted to the pursuit of fish from his early youth, he provides interest for anglers and all those associated with rivers: the means he employs to mitigate the effects of pollution and weed, and the drought of 1973-76; his descriptions of the ecology of his stream and the effect upon it of man and other predators; the behaviour of trout observed at first hand as it affects their conservation and relations with fishermen and the creatures that comprise their food chain. The theme is the river but, as all anglers know, to catch fish you must know their waters, and what is relevant to the Wiltshire Avon applies to many rivers." Chapters include:- As the river keeper sees it; Territory; Water; Water abstraction; Forage; The doldrums; Chalk; Weed; Growth; Fear; Predators; Stocking; The epoch of drought; Conclusions and reflections; Grayling.