Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

has the appearance of being much deformed: he has a small head, and is very brilliantly marked. Until about twenty years ago, Llyn Bugail was entirely without fish.* Two gentlemen, one of whom was the late Captain Jones, R.N., grousing on Plinlimmon, the conversation turned upon the peculiarity of this lake being entirely destitute of the finny race, and the possibility of stocking it from a neighbouring rivulet. A staff net was procured, and some dozens of small trout, caught in the river Rheidol, were turned into the lake, which at that time swarmed with millions of horse leeches. Some of the trout, when placed in the pool, lay upon their sides, faint and exhausted. Strange as it may appear, the rapacious leeches attached themselves to the sick fish, and actually devoured them: others of the trout were more vigorous; these and their progeny have enforced the lex talionis with a vengeance, and not a leech is now to be seen!

LLYN Y GRINWYDDEN, or the "pool of the withered tree," situated on a rocky hill, and said to be of unfathomable depth. It is about seventy yards in length, and contains no fish but eels and carp.

ground, in the genial month of August: but never again shall he enjoy his love. See! he turns up a side like a house. Ay, that is, indeed, a most commodious landing-place, and ere he is aware of water too shallow to hide his back fin, will be whallopping upon the yellow sand."

* Cambrian Quarterly.

LLYN HIR, or the "long pool," about 300 yards in length, and 150 in breadth. cellent red trout, but in

dried up.

It contains exvery hot summers is nearly

LLYN CADWIW, a lake of remarkably clear water, formerly containing great numbers of fine trout, which have been nearly extirpated by the introduction of pike. There is here, however, good trolling, and excellent sport may be obtained by suspending baits by a short line to inflated bladders, and turning them loose on the windward side of the pool.*

"The principal sport to take a pike is, to procure a goose, or gander, or duck; take one of the pike lines, as I have showed you before, tie the line under the left wing, and over the right wing, as a man weareth his belt; turn the goose loose in a pond where pikes are, there is no doubt of pleasure betwixt the goose and the pike. It is the greatest pleasure that a noble gentleman in Shropshire giveth his friends for entertainment. There is no question, among all this fishing,

but we shall take a brace of good pikes.

"A rod twelve feet long, and a ring of wire,

A winder and barrel, will help thy desire

In killing a pike, but the forked stick

With a slit and a bladder, and that other fine trick,
Which our artists call Snap, with a goose or a duck,
Will kill two to one, if thou have any luck.
The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile,
To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile.
When a pike suns himself and a frogging doth go,
The two-inched hook is better, I know,
Than the ord❜nary snaring: but still I must cry,
When the pike is at home, minde the cookery.

"Now I will pawn my credit, that I will show a way either

This lake, which lies on an eminence, is about a mile in circumference, and has, some deep

[ocr errors]

in maire, or pond, or river, that shall take more pikes than any troller shall with his rod. And thus it is: - First, take a forked stick, a line of twelve yards long wound upon it. At the upper end leave a yard, either to tie a bunch of rags or a bladder to buoy up the fish, to carry the bait from the ground, that the fish may swim clear. The bait must be live fish, either dace, gudgeon, or roach, or a small trout. The forked stick must have a slit on one side of the fork, that you may put the line in, that the live fish may swim at that gage you set the fish to swim at, that when the pike taketh the bait, he may have full liberty of line for his feed; you may turn all these loose, either in pond or river, all day long, the more the better, and do it in a pond with the wind: at night, set a small weight, such as may stay the buoy, as a ship lyeth at anchor, until the fish feedeth; for the river, you must turn all loose with the stream: two or three be sufficient to show pleasure. Gaged at such a depth, they will go current down the stream: there is no doubt of pleasure if there be pikes: the hooks must be double hooks; the shanks somewhat shorter than ordinary. My reason is, the shorter the hooks be in the shank, it will hurt the live fish the less, and it must be armed with small wire well seasoned: but I hold a hook armed with twisted silk to be better, for it will also hurt the live fish the less. If you arm your hook with wire, the needle must be made with a hook at the end thereof: if you arm your hook with silk, if it be double, the same needle will serve; but if you arm the hook single, the needle must be made with an eye, and then you must take one of the baits alive, which you can get, and with one of your needles enter the fish within a straw breadth of the gill; so put the needle between the skin and the fish, then put the needle out at the hindmost fin, drawing the arming through the fish until the hook come to

hollows open to the south-west and north-west, within which the collected winds burst impetuously through an opening on the ridge parallel with the direction of the pool, and agitate its waters with great violence.

LLYN MAWR, the "great lake," near Llanwnnog.

LLYN TARW, the "bull's lake."

LLYN DU, the "black lake," in the same parish, south of Llyn Mawr.

GLAS LLYN, "blue lake," at the foot of Plinlimmon. -Red and common trout, eels.

[ocr errors]

lie close to the body; but I hold it better, if it be armed with wire, to take off the hook and put the needle in at the hindmost fin, and so to come forth at the gill, and it will hurt the live fish the less.* So knit the arming with the live fish to the line, then put off into maire or pond with the wind, in the river with the stream: the more you put of them in the maire, you are like to have the more pleasure; for the river, three or four will be sufficient.". BARKER.

* The whole of this proceeding is so atrociously cruel, that no angler of the present day would practise it, but use a dead bait instead.

MERIONETHSHIRE.

"And since each one is praised for her peculiar things,
So MERVINIA is rich in mountains, lakes, and springs;
And holds herself as great in her superfluous waste,
As others by their towns and fruitful tillage graced.
And therefore to recount her rivers from their springs,
Abridging all delays, MERVINIA thus begins."

DRAYTON.

The principal rivers are, the Dee, the Maw, the Dovey, the Dwyryd, and the Dysynni: there are also the Worrion, the Traethbach, the Maes y pandy*, the Dyffryngwn, the Diflas, the Cwmcelli, the Cowarch, the Twrch, the Llew, the Dee, the Bychan, the Treweryn, the Lymauduon, the Eden, and the Cain; besides a hundred other nameless streams, Merionethshire, and the neighbouring county of Carnarvon, may be truly named the Paradise of anglers, the whole district being diversified with woods, lakes, rivers, torrents, cataracts, and all the varied decorations of nature in her wildest garb.

THE DEE

Has its source within a short distance of Bala lake, which it soon enters a little below Llamrwchyllyn: issuing from this extensive sheet of water near the town of Bala, it takes a north-north-east direction through the beautiful vale of Edeyrnion, and, afterwards passing the town of Corwen, flows through

* A beautiful trout stream.

« ПредишнаНапред »