at any kind of snail, or at the black bee that breeds in clay walls. And he never refuses a grasshopper on the top of a swift stream, nor, at the bottom, the young humble-bee that breeds in long grass, and is ordinarily found by the mower of it. In August and the cooler months, a yellow paste, made of the strongest cheese, and pounded in a mortar, with a little butter and saffron, so much of it as, being beaten small, will turn it to a lemon colour. And some make a paste, for the winter months, at which time the chub is accounted best (for then it is observed that the forked bones are lost, or turned into a kind of gristle, especially if he be baked), of cheese and turpentine. He will bite also at a minnow, or penk, as a trout will: of which I shall tell you more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take this for a rule, that, in hot weather, he is to be fished for towards the mid-water, or near the top; and in colder weather nearer the bottom. And if you fish for him on the top, with a beetle or any fly, then be sure to let your line be very long and to keep out of sight. And having told you that his spawn is excellent meat, and that the head of a large cheven, the throat being well washed, is the best part of him, I will say no more of this fish at the present, but wish you may catch the next you fish for.

But, lest you may judge me too nice in urging to have the chub dressed so presently after he is taken, I will commend to your consideration how curious former times have been in the like kind.

You shall read in Seneca his "Natural Questions,” lib. iii. cap. 17, that the ancients were so curious in the newness of their fish, that that seemed not new enough that was not put alive into the guest's hand; and he says that to that

end they did usually keep them living in glass bottles in their dining-rooms; and they did glory much in their entertaining of friends, to have that fish taken from under their table alive that was instantly to be fed upon. And he says, they took great pleasure to see their mullets change to several colours when they were dying. But enough of this, for I doubt I have stayed too long from giving you some observations of the trout, and how to fish for him, which shall take up the next of my spare time.

APPENDIX III.

PRACTICAL ESSAY.

THE CHUB.

Walton was a good chub fisher, and his directions are still valu

able.

The chub is a fish well worth the catching (though not the eating), for he affords good sport. It is common in most rivers, and grows to a good weight, four and six pounds being not an uncommon weight, and I have seen a chub caught in the Severn, with a net, which was said to weigh nine pounds, and looked fully that weight. It spawns in April and May, and afterwards selects the sharp streams to cleanse itself and recruit, where it may be easily caught by flyfishing with largish flies, of the black and red palmer type, having plenty of bushy hackle upon them, but almost any fair-sized stout fly will do. As the summer advances the chub takes to the quieter waters, and a very favourite place is the deepest water by a bank, along which grows a fringe of bushes or trees. Here the chub basks on hot days in great numbers, and may be readily caught either by daping, fly-fishing, or bait-fishing, as mentioned afterwards. In the late autumn it retires for the winter into still deeper and quieter pools, under campsheeting, near piles, lock-gates, sunken roots, and similar harbours. In open weather, through the winter, it may be readily caught by bottom-fishing.

Once a chub-hole always a chub-hole is a true saying, and as the haunts of the fish are well known in each river, ground-baiting over

night is superfluous. A little ground-bait thrown in now and then while fishing will be sufficient to keep the fish together. The chub is a very shy and timid fish, and great quiet is advisable when angling for it.

In bottom-fishing for the chub you will require a stiffish rod, a few feet of strong though fine gut, a moderate-sized hook, and a buoyant float: the line should be shotted well, so as to sink at once to its proper depth, which is just to clear the bottom. Your line had best be the undressed silk line, with the wooden reel used in the Nottingham style of fishing. Your bait may be worms, wasp grubs, cheese, slugs, snails, greaves—anything, in fact, so that there is plenty of it, for the chub likes a rich mouthful. Pith is a very killing bait, in winter-time especially. It is the spinal marrow of a bullock or cow, and is prepared for use by boiling for three or four minutes. Its accompanying ground-bait is the brains of any animal which the butcher kills, well washed, and boiled for about a quarter of an hour. Whatever the bait is, let it travel with the current, easing the line off the reel until it has travelled as far as you can see the float well, or to the end of the hole. If you see it dip, strike, and strike at the end of a swim whether it dips or no.

The ledger-bait, as described in the Appendix relating to the barbel, may sometimes be used with advantage. Chub will often take a minnow, spinning or alive, but it is not a generally successful bait for them.

In the hot summer months, when the chub are lying under the bushes, fly-fishing for them is excellent sport. You must have a boat and an attendant to pull it, keep as far from the side where the chub are as you can throw your line, and drop quietly down stream, casting your fly, which should be a large, dark, and roughbodied one, right to the edge of the boughs—if you can manage so that it touches the leaves, and falls on to the water from them, like a caterpillar, so much the better-and if the chub are there and on the feed, you should catch great numbers of them. I have seen this mode of fishing practised on the Severn from a coracle, and I commend this conveyance to the luxurious Thames fishermen.

I hate having an attendant with me, and always like to "paddle my own canoe," and the coracle is perfection for this kind of work.

You can dape or dib for chub with a cockchafer, bee, grasshopper, or any large fly, and with a small frog. Stick your hook sideways through the bee, or if you are afraid of his sting, try a cockroach; roll the line round the front of your rod, poke the latter through the bushes over where the chub are lying, and unroll the line by twisting the rod round until the fly touches the water, when the biggest chub will probably suck it in with his fat white lips, and then mind that he doesn't get you fast in the roots. In this way you may proceed down the river, picking out the biggest fish. A very good plan is to bait with a tiny frog who has not long before cast off his tail and ceased to be a tadpole; hook him gently (as you loved him) through the skin of the back, have a small bullet on your line, about a foot above the hook, reel up your line until the bullet touches the top ring, push the rod through the branches as before, and let the bullet draw your line through the rings until the frog touches the water, where his efforts to swim away will probably bring the biggest chub up to see what is the matter. For flyfishing or daping for chub, select the calmest and hottest weather. Blow-line fishing, as described in the Appendix on trout fishing, is also very killing.

if

Chub make rapid headway in a river when once introduced, and many of our best trout streams are being spoiled by their presence, for they take the place and the food from the nobler fish.