sently. Throw this bait, thus ordered, which will look very yellow, into any great still hole where a Trout is, and he will presently venture his life for it, it is not to be doubted, if you be not espied; and that the bait first touch the water before the line. And this will do best in the deepest water.

Next, let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk quietly by a brook, with a little stick in my hand, with which I might easily take these, and consider the curiosity of their composure: and if you shall ever like to do so, then note, that your stick must be a little hazel, or willow, cleft, or have a nick at one end of it, by which means you may, with ease, take many of them in that nick out of the water, before you have any occasion to use them. These, my honest scholar, are some observations, told to you as they now come suddenly into my memory, of which you may make some use: but for the practical part, it is that that makes an angler: it is diligence, and observation, and practice, and an ambition to be the best in the art, that must do it.' I will tell you,

(1) The author has now done describing the several kinds of fish, excepting the few little ones that follow, with the methods of taking them; but has said little or nothing of Float-fishing: it may therefore not be amiss here to lay down some rules about it.

Let the rod be light and stiff, and withal so smart in the spring, as to strike at the tip of the whale-bone. From fourteen to fifteen feet is a good length.

In places where you sometimes meet with Barbel, as at Shepperton and Hampton, in Middlesex, the fittest line is one of six or seven hairs at top, and so diminishing for two yards; let the rest be strong Indian grass, to within about half a yard of the hook, which may be whipped to a fine grass or silk-worm gut. And this line will kill a fish of six pounds weight.

But for mere Roach and Dace-fishing, accustom yourself to a single-hair line; with which an artist may kill a fish of a pound and a half weight.

For your float: In slow streams a neat round goose-quill is proper; but for deep or rapid rivers, or in an eddy, the cork, shaped like a pear, is indisputably the best, which should not in general exceed the size of a nutmeg; let not the quill which you put through it be more than half an inch above and below the cork and this float, though some prefer a swan's quill, has great advantage over a bare quill; for the quill being defended from the water by the cork, does not soften; and the cork enables you to lead your line so heavily, as that the hook sinks almost as soon as you put into the water; whereas, when you lead but lightly, it does not go to the bottom till it is near the end of your swim. And in leading your lines, be careful to balance them so nicely, that a very

scholar, I once heard one say, 66 I envy not him that eats better meat than I do; nor him that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do: I envy nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do." And such a man is like to prove an angler; and this noble emulation I wish to you, and all young anglers.

small touch will sink them: some use for this purpose lead shaped like a barley. corn; but there is nothing better to lead with than shot, which you must have ready cleft always with you; remembering that when you fish fine, it is better to have on your line a great number of small, than a few large, shot.

Whip the end of the quill round the plug with fine silk well waxed: this will keep the water out of your float, and preserve it greatly.

In fishing with a float, your line must be about a foot shorter than your rod; for if it is longer, you cannot so well command your hook when you come to disengage your fish,

Pearch and Chub are caught with a float, and also Gudgeons; and sometimes Barbel and Grayling.

For Carp and Tench, which are seldom caught but in ponds, use a very small goose or a duck-quill float: and for ground-bait throw in, every now and then, a bit of chewed bread.

For Barbel, the place should be baited the night before you fish, with graves, which are the sediment of melted tallow, and may be had at the tallow-chandler's. Use the same ground-bait, while you are fishing, as for Roach and Dace.

In fishing with a float for Chub, in warm weather, fish at midwater; in cool, lower; and in cold, at the ground.

CHAP. XVIII.

Of the MINNOW, or PENK; of the LOACH; of the BULL-HEAD, or MILLER's-THUMB; and of the STICKLEBAG.

Piscator. THERE be also three or four other little fish that I had almost forgot; that are all without scales; and may, for excellency of meat be compared to any fish of greatest value and largest size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn, all the months of summer; for they breed often, as 'tis observed mice and many of the four-footed creatures of the earth do; and as those, so these come quickly to their full growth and perfection. And it is needful that they breed both often and numerously; for they be, besides other accidents of ruin, both a prey and baits for other fish. And first I shall tell you of the Minnow or Penk.

The MINNOW hath, when he is in perfect season, and not sick, which is only presently after spawning, a kind of dappled or waved colour, like to a panther, on his sides, inclining to a greenish and sky-colour; his belly being milk white; and his back almost black, or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small worm, and in hot weather makes excellent sport for young anglers, or boys, or women that love that recreation. And in the spring they make of them excellent Minnow-tansies; for being washed well in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use; that is, being fried with yolks of eggs, the flowers of cowslips and of primroses, and a little tansy; thus used they make a dainty dish of meat.

The LOACH is, as I told you, a most dainty fish; he breeds and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills, and lives there upon the gravel, and in the sharpest

streams: he grows not to be above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length. This is not unlike the shape of the Eel: he has a beard or wattles like a Barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four at his belly, and one at his tail; he is dappled with many black or brown spots; his mouth is barbel-like under his nose. This fish is usually full of eggs or spawn; and is by Gesner and other learned physicians, commended for great nourishment, and to be very grateful both to the palate and stomach of sick persons. He is to be fished for with a very small worm, at the bottom; for he very seldom, or never, rises above the gravel, on which I told you he usually gets his living.

The MILLER'S-THUMB or BULL-HEAD, is a fish of no pleasing shape. He is by Gesner compared to the Seatoad-fish, for his similitude and shape. It has a head big and flat, much greater than suitable to his body; a mouth very wide, and usually gaping; he is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much like to a file. He hath two fins near to his gills, which be roundish or crested; two fins also under the belly; two on the back; one below the vent; and the fin of his tail is round. Nature hath painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, and brownish spots. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the summer, I mean the females; and those eggs swell their vents almost into the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about April, and, as I told you, spawn several months in the summer. And in the winter, the

(1) Since Walton wrote, there has been brought into England, from Germany, a species of small fish, resembling Carp in shape and colour, called Crusians, with which may ponds are now plentifully stocked.

There have also been brought hither 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, basons, and small reservoirs of water; to which they are a delightful ornament. And it is now a very common prac

Minnow, and Loach, and Bull-head dwell in the mud, as the Eel doth; or we know not where, no more than we know where the cuckow and swallow, and other halfyear birds, which first appear to us in April, spend their six cold, winter, melancholy months. This fish does usually dwell, and hide himself, in holes, or amongst stones in clear water; and in very hot days will lie a long time very still, and sun himself, and will be easy to be seen upon any flat stone, or any gravel; at which time he will suffer an angler to put a hook, baited with a small worm, very near unto his very mouth: and he never refuses to bite, nor indeed to be caught with the worst of anglers. Matthiolus 'commends him much more for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape or beauty.

There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAG, a fish without scales, but hath his body fenc'd with several prickles. I know not where he dwells in winter; nor what he is good for in summer, but only to make sport for boys and women-anglers, and to feed other fish that be fish of prey; as Trouts in particular, who will bite at him as at a Penk; and better, if your hook be rightly baited with him; for he may be so baited as, his tail turning like the sail of a wind-mill, will make him turn more quick than any Penk or Minnow can. For note, that the nimble turning, of that, or the Minnow, is the perfection of Minnow-fishing. To which end, if you put your hook into his mouth, and out at his tail; and then, having first tied him with white thread a little above his

tice 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 beholding them, which I confess I could never do, may catch them with gentles; but though costly, they are but coarse food.

(1) Petrus Andreas Matthiolus, of Sienna, an eminent physician of the sixteenth century, famous for his Commentaries on some of the writings of Dioscorides.