your hook into his mouth, and out at his tail; and then, having first tied him with a white thread a little above his tail, and placed him after such a manner on your hook as he is like to turn, then sew up his mouth to your line, and he is like to turn quick, and tempt any trout; but if he does not turn quick, then turn his tail a little more or less towards the inner part, or towards the side of the hook; or put the minnow or sticklebag a little more crooked or more straight on your hook, until it will turn both true and fast: and then doubt not but to tempt any great trout that lies in a swift stream.' And the loach that I told you of, will do the like: no bait is more tempting, provided the loach be not too big.

And now, scholar, with the help of this fine morning, and your patient attention, I have said all that my present memory will afford me, concerning most of the several fish that are usually fished for in fresh waters.?

Ven. But, master, you have, by your former civility, made me hope that you will make good your promise, and say something of the several rivers that be of most note in

1 The minnow, if used in this manner, is so tempting a bait, that few fish are able to resist it. The present Earl of told me, that, in the month of June last, at Kimpton Hoo, near Wellwyn, in Hertfordshire, he caught, with a minnow, a Rud, which-inasmuch as the rud is not reckoned, nor does the situation of his teeth, which are in his throat, bespeak him to be a fish of prey-is a fact more extraordinary than that related by Sir George Hastings, in Chap. IV., of a Fordidge Trout (of which kind of fish none had ever been known to be taken with an angle), which he caught, and supposed it bit for wantonness.-H.

2 Since Walton wrote, there has been brought into England from Germany a species of small fish, resembling carp in shape and colour, called Crucians; with which many ponds are now plentifully stocked.

There have also been brought from China those beautiful creatures Gold and Silver Fish; the first are of an orange colour, with very shining scales, and finely variegated with black and dark brown; the silver fish are of the colour of silver tissue, with scarlet fins, with which colour they are curiously marked in several parts of the body. These fish are usually kept in ponds, basins, and small reservoirs of water, to which they are a delightful ornament. And it is now a very common practice to keep them in a large glass vessel like a punch-bowl, with fine gravel strewed at the bottom; frequently changing the water, and feeding them with bread and gentles. Those who can take more pleasure in angling for than in behold-ing them-which, I confess, I could never do-may catch them with gentles; but though costly, they are but coarse food.-H.

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this nation; and also of fish-ponds, and the ordering of them and do it, I pray, good master, for I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing, the time spent in such discourse passes away very pleasantly.

[These little creatures have a very rank musky smell, which has given them the reputation of being venomous, but this is not the case. Our forefathers thought that if the Shrew ran over the bodies of cattle, its touch was fatal, unless cured by an application of the Shrew-ash; which it was customary to "medicate" by burying the animal alive in a hole made in the body of the tree. They feed generally by the sides of rivers, on worms and the grubs of beetles, and having a very small mouth, cannot, as has been supposed, do any harm by their bite. That beautiful little creature, the WATER-SHREW, has its tail and feet adapted to paddling in the water, in which it swims and dives with great agility, its black velvety fur repelling the water like the feathers of a water-fowl. They renew their coats both in spring and autumn, and in a somewhat peculiar manner, beginning the change at the head and proceeding by degrees to the tail, showing the successive progress by a strong line of demarcation.-H. G. B.]

Pisc. Well, scholar, since the ways and weather do both favour us, and that we yet see not Tottenham-Cross, you shall see my willingness to satisfy your desire. And, first, for the rivers of this nation: there be, as you may note out of Doctor Heylin's Geography and others, in number three hundred and twenty-five; but those of chiefest note he reckons and describes as followeth.

1

The chief is Thamisis, compounded of two rivers, Thame

Dr. Peter Heylin was born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, November 29th, 1600. In 1619 he was made fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1621 he published his "Microcosmos," quoted in the text. He was stedfastly attached to King Charles I., and wrote for him the weekly paper entitled, Mercurius Aulicus, though his loyalty reduced him to great poverty. He died on May 8th, 1662.-ED.

2 The Thames may be the chief of rivers in some respects; but had Walton seen the Shannon, he must have retained a lasting impression of a river which is really wonderful for so small an island as Ireland. The