with ravenous avidity, and, being a rapid feeder, requires, therefore, rapid hooking.

Perhaps, however, the most artistic kind of angling for dace is with the Nottingham tackle, using a worm for bait. Wells, of Nottingham, the well-known tackle maker, sends out a magnificent dace rod at an absurdly small price; and with it and the tackle he furnishes, made specially for dace, i.e., finest twist line, a tiny quill float, and gut bottom of beautiful silk-worm gut, dace fishing becomes a science to be pursued with a maximum of numbers and sport. With this tackle the bait I use is, in early season, the cad bait; in late season-especially in flood time, when, like barbel, these fish frequent the sides of the river and rejoice in the submerged green turf-the tail of a lobworm, or, better still, of the dew worm. A red worm is also occasionally very effectual, but commend me to the opaline tail of a well-scoured dew worm. I cannot understand a dace ever refusing this bait. The cad bait is, of course, a confrère of the caddis bait, and equally, of course, a close relative of the straw bait, or porte bois of the French angler. It is, no doubt, the stock bait of the dace fisherman, although flies or gentles are good lures.

Next to the Nottingham, I prefer the blow line style. I know of no more enjoyable method, indeed, in the soft evenings of summer, when the dace do not lie in deep water, but approach the shallows to feed. There is also the chance of additional sport in the Thames from a trout on the fine tackle; not large, perhaps, but game. The rod had better be from 12ft. to 16ft. in length, and the line of soft silk twist or cotton, the bait an artificial or a natural blowfly. A stonefly, with its bunch of ova exuding from the body, artificial black gnat, the hook tipped with a gentle, are famous baits. It is needless to say the wind must be consulted more carefully with reference to this tackle than with any other.

Well do I recollect my first lesson in this style and with somewhat more than ordinary regret do I remember my instructor. He was an old gentleman who had passed his life in active business, and in the autumn of his days had settled at Chertsey Bridge, with but one aged servant, to enjoy the remainder of his life in fishing and communion with Nature— and a profound angler and naturalist he was. Some of my readers will remember him as they passed the Domesday deeps or the shallows of the Chertsey meads, sitting in the golden eventide, calmly smoking the calumet of peace (he was a great smoker) and watching with imperturbable calmness the tiny float, or strolling leisurely, rod in hand, homewards when the night shadows had gathered on the distant Woburn Hill and the evening star had peered out over the Shepperton Range. This gentleman took me in hand, and showed me the making of a fly and

numberless other "wrinkles," by which I have since profited, amongst them the wonderful effectiveness of the blow-line when properly used. When my first essay with it was made-I, a boy of ten-I recollect the thrill of the struggling dace, like an electric current, which permeated my embryo angler soul. And that night my Telemachus hooked a trout with the very tackle with which I caught my dace! I have known him catch four and five dozen dace in an evening, using the blow-line.

I cannot forbear this tribute to the memory of my teacher, and I trust the general reader will forgive me the reader who recognises the original will, I know. Poor old gentleman! he died of a terrible disease-cancer -ill in accordance with his peaceful pursuits.

I do not know that it is of any use to ground bait for dace. Perhaps, when bottom fishing, however, it is as well to throw in a few broken worms which have been rolled in silver sand, and brewer's grains will have an attractive influence on the fish occasionally. The dace is a mid-water fish to all intents and purposes, and as such must be treated. The chief thing is to know where to find him. Ground bait is, therefore, only questionably useful.

One word as to his gastronomical locus standi.

The Jews esteem him,

so much so, indeed, as to give as much as £1 a hundred on special occasions. For my own part, cooked like smelts, I think they are by no means to be despised for the breakfast table.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ROACH.

WHO does not know this beautiful member of the carp family, and who is there amongst the angling brotherhood who has not derived sport from his capture? Leuciscus rutilus, the roach, is plentiful, game, not bad eating, and may be caught in a vast variety of ways—hence his popularity. Next to the " game fishes, there is probably no other species which affords so much sport to so great a number of anglers in our fresh waters, nor is there one evoking so much ingenuity and mechanical skill in its capture. I have said the roach is plentiful. There is no need of proving this assertion. Every stream in England, and nearly every lake, afford them in great quantities, notwithstanding inveterate enemies of nearly every nationality-flesh, fowl, and fish. If, however, their plenitude is noticeable in this country, what will be said of the statement of Bloch, the German ichthyologist, that before the marias on the Oder were drained such enormous quantities were frequently caught that they supplied amongst the adjoining villages sufficient provender on which to fatten pigs. In various other countries in the North of Europe also it was common to manure the land with them. That it is a 'game" fish is also indisputable. A pound roach is no mean antagonist in a strong stream and on fine hair or gut tackle, notwithstanding the opprobrious epithet bestowed on him by Walton of "water-sheep," and the dictum of Dame Julyana Berners, that "The roche is an easy fysshe to take;" howbeit, her prioress-ship confirms the statement that he is fair eating by adding to the foregoing, "Yf he be fatte and pennyd thenne is he good meete."

A description of this handsome fish is not easy, and it varies so much in its tints with the season, depth and quality of water from which it has been taken, that I have thought it better to have it represented by a pen and ink sketch (which has been ably done by my friend, Mr. Percy