find any advantage by them; and can scarce believe there is anything to be done that way; though I must tell you, I have seen some men who I thought went to work no more artificially than I, and have yet, with the same kind of worms I had, in my own sight taken five, and sometimes ten to one. But we'll let that business alone, if you please; and because we have time enough, and that I would deliver you from the trouble of any more lectures, I will, if you please, proceed to the last way of angling for a trout or grayling, which is in the middle; after which I shall have no more to trouble you with. VIAT. 'Tis no trouble, sir, but the greatest satisfaction that can be and I attend you.

[In this chapter Cotton proves himself every bit as good a bottomfisher as his so-called master and father, Walton.-ED.];

CHAPTER XII.

[Third Day.]

Pisc. Angling in the middle, then, for a trout or grayling, is of two sorts; with a penk or minnow for a trout; or with a worm, grub, or cadis, for a grayling.

For the first. It is with a minnow, half a foot or a foot within the superficies of the water. And as to the rest that concerns this sort of angling, I shall wholly refer you to Mr. Walton's directions, who is undoubtedly the best angler with a minnow in England; only, in plain truth, I do not approve of those baits he keeps in salt, unless where the living ones are not possibly to be had (though I know he frequently kills with them, and peradventure, more than with any other; nay, I have seen him refuse a living one for one of them); and much less of his artificial one; for though we do it with a counterfeit fly, methinks it should hardly be expected that a man should deceive a fish with a counterfeit fish.* Which

* Counterfeit fish, or artificial fish-baits, are now so well made, that in spinning I frequently use them in preference to the natural fish-bait; and in slightly discoloured water I always prefer them. They spin better, and will take a great many fish before they are injured, which is a great convenience, obviating the necessity of constantly, after a run or a kill, putting on a fresh bait, which you must do if you spin with the natural fish-bait. The best artificial fish-baits are made by Mr. Flinn, of Worcester.-ED.

having said, I shall only add (and that out of my own experience), that I do believe a bull-head, with his gill-fins cut off (at some times of the year especially), to be a much better bait for a trout than a minnow, and a loach much better than that: to prove which I shall only tell you, that I have much oftener taken trouts with a bull-head or a loach in their throats, for there a trout has questionless his first digestion, than a minnow; and that one day especially, having angled a good part of the day with a minnow, and that in as hopeful a day, and as fit a water, as could be wished for that purpose, without raising any one fish ; I at last fell to with the worm, and with that took fourteen in a very short space amongst all which, there was not, to my remembrance, so much as one that had not a loach or two, and some of them, three, four, five, and six loaches, in his throat and stomach; from whence I concluded, that had I angled with that bait, I had made a notable day's work of it.

But after all, there is a better way of angling with a minnow, than perhaps is fit either to teach or to practise; to which I shall only add, that a grayling will certainly rise at, and sometimes take a minnow, though it will be hard to be believed by any one, who shall consider the littleness of that fish's mouth, very unfit to take so great a bait: but it is affirmed by many, that he will sometimes do it; and I myself know it to be true; for though I never took a grayling so, yet a man of mine once did, and within so few paces of me, that I am as certain of it, as I can be of anything I did not see, and, which made it appear the more strange, the grayling was not above eleven inches long.

I must here also beg leave of your master, and mine, not to controvert, but to tell him, that I cannot consent to his way of throwing in his rod to an over grown trout, and afterwards recovering his fish with his tackle. For though I am satisfied he has sometimes done it, because he says so, yet I have found it quite otherwise; and though I have taken with the angle, I may safely say, some thousands of trouts in my life, my top never snapt (though my line still continued fast to the remaining part of my rod by some lengths of line curled round about my top, and there fastened, with waxed silk, against such an accident), nor my hand never slacked, or slipped by any other chance, but I almost always infallibly lost my fish, whether great or little, though my hook came home again. And I have often wondered how a trout should so

suddenly disengage himself from so great a hook as that we bait with a minnow, and so deep bearded as those hooks commonly are, when I have seen by the forenamed accidents or the slipping of a knot in the upper part of the line, by sudden and hard striking, that though the line has immediately been recovered, almost before it could be all drawn into the water, the fish cleared and gone in a moment. And yet, to justify what he says, I have sometimes known a trout, having carried away a whole line, found dead three or four days after with the hook fast sticking in him; and then it is to be supposed he had gorged it, which a trout will do if you be not too quick with him when he comes at a minnow, as sure and much sooner than a pike: and I myself have also, once or twice in my life, taken the same fish, with my own fly sticking in his chaps, that he had taken from me the day before, by the slipping of a hook in the arming. But I am very confident a trout will not be troubled two hours with any hook that has so much as one handful of line left behind with it, or that is not struck through a bone, if it be in any part of his mouth only: nay, I do certainly know that a trout, so soon as ever he feels himself pricked, if he carries away the hook, goes immediately to the bottom, and will there root, like a hog upon the gravel, till he either rub out or break the hook in the middle. And so much for this sort of angling in the middle for a trout.

The second way of angling in the middle is with a worm, grub, cadis, or any other ground-bait for a grayling; and that is with a cork, and a foot from the bottom, a grayling taking it much better there than at the bottom, as has been said before; and this always in a clear water, and with the finest tackle.

To which we may also, and with very good reason, add the third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait, as a third way of fishing in the middle, which is common to both trout and grayling, and, as I said before, the best way of angling with a worm, of all other I ever tried whatever.

And now, sir, I have said all I can at present think of concerning angling for a trout and grayling, and I doubt not have tired you sufficiently; but I will give you no more trouble of this kind, whilst you stay, which I hope will be a good while longer.

VIAT. That will not be above a day longer; but if I live till May come twelvemonth, you are sure of me again, either

with my master Walton, or without him; and in the mean time shall acquaint him how much you have made of me for his sake, and I hope he loves me well enough to thank you for it.

PISC. I shall be glad, sir, of your good company at the time you speak of, and shall be loath to part with you now; but when you tell me you must go, I will then wait upon you more miles on your way than I have tempted you out of it, and heartily wish you a good journey.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE, NO. 1.-NATURAL FLIES.

In this plate the examiner will see six representations, taken from life, of insects used in fly-fishing.

No. 1. The May-fly or Green-drake (ephemera vulgata), stands at the head of its tribe. The ephemera are extremely numerous, of various sizes and colours, appearing particularly in the summer and autumn months. Their wingsstand upright, and they have whisks or tails. Ofall flies these are the most useful to the angler. As their name implies, they are very short lived, but fresh tribes of them replace those which die in a day.

No. 2. Is the Stone-fly, and the largest of its tribe (phryganea). They are considered spring-flies, but they are produced throughout the year. Generally speaking they have flat wings, but that is not a specific characteristic, because the house-fly (musca) and other flies have flat wings also. The flies of this species proceed from water larvæ, and in angling importance stand next to the ephemera.

No. 3. Is the March-brown, or large dun ephemera. It is nearly as large as the May-fly, or ephemera vulgata; and in March and April is as great a favourite with trout, as the May-fly is in May or June. It is a fly I esteem very highly.

No. 4. Is a representation of a diptera, or two-winged fly. These flies are generally small, and have two upright wings. In shape and colour they much resemble the ephemera, and as baits they are equally captivating.

No. 5. Is the Ant-fly (formica). It is a late summer and early autumn fly. Its body resembles that of an ant. Hence its name. It is not a water-born fly, but a land-bred one. Its wings are transparent and feeble, and the slightest breeze wafts it on to the surface of rivers. Grayling take it eagerly, and so do roach and dace.

No. 6. Is a dark palmer, or representation of a dark caterpillar, with light yellow circular bands round the body. Walton properly observes, "this is called a pilgrim or palmerworm, for his very wandering life and various food; not contenting himself, as others do, with any one certain place for his abode, nor any certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding; but will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, and not endure to be kept to a diet, or fixed to a particular place." As caterpillars are of various sizes and colours, so are their artificial representations. They are good angling baits in the English rivers, but not so good either in Ireland or Scotland. Chub take them with great avidity. Made very large they will catch large Thames trout, and in the rivers of South Wales they are not bad baits for Salmon.