trout is, and he will presently venture his life for it, it is not to be doubted, if you be not espied; and that the bait first touch the water before the line. And this will do best in the deepest water.

Next let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk quietly by a brook with a little stick in my hand, with which I might easily take these, and consider the curiosity of their composure: and if you shall ever like to do so, then note, that your stick must be a little hasel or willow, cleft, or have a nick at one end of it; by which means you may with ease take many of them in that nick out of the water, before you have any occasion to use them. These, my honest scholar, are some observations told to you as they now come suddenly into my memory, of which you may make some use; but for the practical part, it is that that makes an angler: it is diligence, and observation, and practice, and an ambition to be the best in the art, that must do it.* I will tell you, scholar,

*The author has now done describing the several kinds of fish, excepting the few little ones that follow, with the different methods of taking them, but has said little or nothing of float-fishing; it may not be amiss here to lay down some rules about it. Let the rod be light and stiff, and withal so smart

in the spring, as to strike at the tip of the whalebone; from fourteen to fifteen feet is a good length. In places where you sometimes meet with barbel, as at Shepperton and Hampton, in Middlesex, the fittest line is one of six or seven hairs at top; and so diminishing for two yards, let the rest be strong Indian grass, to within about half a yard of the hook, which may be whipped to a fine grass or silk-worm cut; and this line will kill a fish of six pounds weight. But for mere roach and dace fishing, accustom yourself to a singlehair line, with which an artist may kill a fish a pound and a half weight. For your float, in slow streams, a neat round goose-quill is proper; but for deep or rapid rivers, or in an eddy, the cork, shaped like a pear, is indisputably the best; which should not, in general, exceed the size of a nutmeg; let not the quill, which you put through it, be more than half an inch above and below the cork; and this float, though some prefer a swan's quill, has great advantage over a bare quill; for the quill being defended from the water by the cork, does not soften, and the cork enables you to lead your line so heavily, as that the hook sinks almost as soon as you put it into the water; whereas, when you lead but lightly, it does not get to the bottom till it is near the end of your swim. In leading your lines, be careful to balance them so nicely, that a very small touch will sink them; some use for this purpose lead shaped like a barley-corn, but there is nothing better to lead with than shot, which you must have ready cleft always with you; remembering that when you fish fine, it is better to have on your line a great number of small than a few large shot. Whip the end of the quill round the plug with fine silk, well waxed; this will keep the water out of your float, and preserve it greatly. In fishing with a float, your line must be about a foot shorter than your rod; for if it is longer, you cannot so well command your hook when you come to disengage your fish.-H.

[I give the above note because it contains some instructions by which the

I once heard one say, 66 I envy not him that eats better meat than I do, nor him that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do; I envy nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do." And such a man is like to prove an angler; and this noble emulation I wish to you and all young anglers.

[ROACH AND DACE FISHING.-The text of the preceding chapter contains much useful information on angling for roach and dace, and on the procuring and preserving of gentles and other baits. I shall not have a great deal to add to it. There are no better elementary exercises for young anglers, than those that can be gone through in fishing for roach and dace. He that succeeds in bottom-fishing well for roach, and in flyfishing for dace, will soon, if he have ambition, be able to cope with the largest of the carp tribe, with the salmon, and his numerous family, from the sea-trout to the grayling. I cannot conceive why Walton should have written, "that the roach is accounted the water-sheep for his simplicity and foolishness." In my opinion, the roach, next to the carp, is the "cutest" member of the race. Under water he is tormentingly shy, and unless you tempt him with the most delicate baits, and the very finest tackle, you will have no chance of alluring him. Roach fishing requires the smallest hooks, the thinnest foot line, and a very long, very light, and moderately elastic rod. Your float of prepared quill, should yield to a next to imperceptible nibble. See what the late Mr. Blaine says of this bashful and pretty fish,-"The best season for roach fishing is from autumn until the following spring. In May they usually spawn; occasionally it is both earlier and later: after they have spawned, they continue out of season for several weeks, hardly recovering until the latter end of July, which is not to be wondered at when we consider the debilitating effect of such a quantity of ova, the grains of which, in a single fish, have been reckoned, and were found to amount to fifty-four thousand, which must consequently require a very copious supply of milt from the male to fecundate. Roach angling offers much interest to the piscatory zealots, who are shut out from the higher pursuits of fly-fishing. The roach is an elegant fish when taken, and we have shown that it requires some skill to deceive it, while its game qualities are such that it contests the matter with the angler to the last, so as to yield no small triumph when landed. We have seen a roach of a pound weight in a strong current in the Thames, raise the blood to the face of an angler of fair fame. They also, when in condition, bite freely; but we consider the

angler may make a few necessary articles. Residents in towns need not make them, as they will find them at the fishing-tackle shops ready made, cheaper and better than they can be made by amateur hands. Nothing can exceed the excellence of the floats sold at the shops, and cork floats are sold cheaply of every size, shape and colour. Hair bottom lines are almost obsolete, for gut can be found finer and stronger than hair.-Ed.]

principal hold they have, or ought to have on the angler, is, their great plenty, the numerous methods that may be employed to take them, to which may be added, the time of the year that sport may be obtained with them, which is, when few other fish yield any. From the bottom of the water, every inch of the way up to the surface, they may be fished for in various manners; and when they are sunning themselves at the top, they will take a fly with the best. No fish whatever exerts the capabilities of the angler so much as this: even the grayling (whose versatility in yielding sport is great also) must nevertheless give place to the roach, a precedence which, we think, will always rank it as a distinguished member in the piscatory list; and this opinion, from one devotedly fond of fly-fishing, may be considered as something in favour of its tribe and qualities." The best baits for roach are, clean simple or sweet pastes, and good small gentles; and in the spring months, small well-scoured brandlings and little red worms. In summer and autumn they will take artificial flies, little red, brown, and black hackles, small duns, the black gnat, and red and brown artificial ant-flies. They will take these flies best, if they be sunk four or six inches under water. A thin strip of light yellow kid leather, wound from the tail of the artificial fly, nearly as far as the barb of the hook, will be an improvement. Foot-lines for roach are frequently made of single horse-hair of a light brown colour. Perhaps they are the best, but as gut can be had finer than horse-hair and much stronger, I think it preferable. Between the float and the top of the rod there should not be more than a yard of line, and it should descend from the rod's point perpendicularly. Prompt striking, with an oblique twist, of the wrist is necessary.

The dace is a merry little fellow, reckless and gamesome, and therefore I like him much. He bites at the bottom more freely than the roach, and takes an artificial fly on the surface far more eagerly. He is the very best fish to initiate the youthful Cotton into the art and mysteries of that by far the most pleasant of piscatory practices-fly-fishing. They frequent shallows, rapids, and eddies, and in them they will take well the artificial flies recommended for roach. In the late summer and early autumn months they prefer deep, still, sheltered waters, and then must be angled for with paste and gentles. In spring and early summer they take small worms with avidity. There are plenty of them in the Lea, and the Colne is famous for them of large size. In the latter river they take the artificial fly as eagerly as trout or grayling. In the shallows at Isleworth, Twickenham, Richmond, Teddington, Thames Ditton, Hampton, Sunbury, Walton, Halliford, Weybridge, Shepperton, Laleham, Chertsey, Penton Hook, Staines, and indeed, in all the streams up to Henley and beyond it. With an excellent extract from Blaine, and one from Captain Williamson, I shall conclude the subject of dace fishing. Blaine truly says, "Dace bottom-fishing is not very different from that for roach, and the one is frequently taken when trying for the other, particularly in the autumn, when both retire for a while into the deep currents of rivers. Thus it is that roach and dace fishing is at that time a common sport, as it were, but does not continue long so; for dace, during

the dead winter months, retreat to still deeps, and are not so easily tempted to bite then as roach. Dace are also often taken, with barbel, in the autumn months, which shows that they are then beginning to feed low, and are very seldom tempted by the fly at the surface afterwards. The tackle for dace bottom-angling should be similar to that for roach, and the baits also should be the same. To roach fishing, therefore, we refer our reader for the necessary information; but it may be observed, that when dace are purposely fished for, without reference to the taking of roach, a larger hook and larger bait may be used; and if the water be strong, for instance, as a mill-race, etc. etc., employ a gut-line and cork float. During the spring season, worms of most kinds (but the red in particular), caddies, larvæ of beetles, or grubs and bobs of all sorts, as well as small caterpillars, are proper baits; for they all form, at this period, the natural food of dace. In this way they will take small watersnails also. In the hot summer months, gentles take the lead; in autumn, greaves and pastes, particularly salmon-roe, are killing. Like roach, they are more frequently taken at the bottom than at mid-water; a tripping-bait is, therefore, the best for them in general cases, but during the summer months it is not always necessary to fish so deep. On the contrary, caddies, bobs, and worms, are often taken by them more readily in currents at nine or ten inches from the ground, or even a little below mid-water at great depths. In shallows of two or three feet deep only, particularly in such as lie in the angle of two sharp streams, or where a swift brook enters a river, or between the race-courses of millwheels, where there is a sort of still back-water, set the bait to within four inches of the ground. In these spots dace are usually found waiting for the worms and insects that may be brought down, and which, as the eddy whirls them into the still, by its circular impetus, present themselves to the fish in the most tempting form. To imitate this, use a light line with a very fine cork, or large quill float, drop it within the edge of the current, so as to gain from it the circular motion for the bait you offer, which may be worm, gentle, or caddis, etc. By this method dace after dace may be taken, as fast nearly as you drop in the line; and we have ourselves, in such situations, basketed two or three dozen at a time. In most other cases, however, they are not so stationary as roach, and it is necessary to shift the fishing ground often to meet with them. Dace bite sharp, and must be struck quickly; they also plunge violently at first, and should the tackle be very fine, they must be guardedly played, or they may endanger it." Ground-baiting for dace over-night is not absolutely necessary, but follow Captain Williamson's advice, viz. : "In dace-fishing throw in now and then some balls made of browned (by roasting) oatmeal and treacle, or some coarsely ground malt." The roach is called Cyprinus Rutilus, from the red colour of its fins; the dace Cyprinus Alburnus, from the bright hue of its scales and belly. I recommend the latter to the patient pursuit of the incipient fly-fisher; the former to the steady perseverance of the young bottomfisher.-ED.]

205

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE MINNOW OR PENK, OF THE LOACH, AND OF THE BULL-HEAD OR MILLER'S THUMB.

Lfifth Day.]

PISC. There be also three or four other little fish that I had almost forgot, that are all without scales, and may for excellency of meat be compared to any fish of greatest value and largest size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the months of summer; for they breed often, as it is observed mice, and many of the smaller four-footed creatures of the earth do; and as those, so these, come quickly to their full growth and perfection. And it is needful that they breed both often and numerously, for they be, besides other accidents of ruin, both a prey and baits for other fish. And first, I shall tell you of the MINNOW or PENK.

The minnow hath, when he is in perfect season, and not sick, which is only presently after spawning, a kind of dappled or waved colour, like to a panther, on his sides, inclining to a greenish and sky-colour, his belly being milk white, and his back almost black or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small worm, and in hot weather makes excellent sport for young anglers, or boys, or women that love that recreation, and in the spring they make of them excellent minnow-tansies; for being washed well in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use; that is, being fried with yolks of eggs, the flowers of cowslips, and of primroses, and a little tansy; thus used they make a dainty dish of meat.

The LOACH is, as I told you, a most dainty fish; he breeds and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills, and lives there upon the gravel, and in the sharpest streams: he grows not to be above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length. This loach is not unlike the shape of the eel; he has a beard or wattles like a barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four at his belly, and one at his tail; he is dappled with many black or brown spots, his mouth is barbel-like