ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY NEw YorK STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND HoME ECONOMICS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE GIFT OF WILLARD A. KIGGINS, JR. in memory of his father Cornell University Library SH 439.M27 WA AT mann NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. /(L , ot id jw lw oa Ay By J. J. MANLEY, M.A. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. “ Quicquid agunt pisces nostri est farrago libelli.” (Slightly altered from) JuvENAL. Lonvon : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1877. [All rights reserved.] j Pyles 4 ar 434 biz] 26404 LONDON : GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN’S SQUARE. PREFACE. “ Grnttu” ReapEr—or, as probably I may call you, “ Brother Angler ’—and you, too, gentle or ungentle critic, as the case may be, please take the trouble to run through these few introductory lines. Nothing is more unfair to an author than to read or “dip into” his book before seeing what he has to say about it in his Preface. In this you will often find that he explains the scope and plan (or perhaps absence of plan) of his work, and tells his readers what to expect and what not. Thus, to some extent he is able, by way of anticipation, to pro- tect himself against unfair objections which might be alleged against his performance, and to escape the wrath of some readers who might be disappointed at not finding what they expected to find, and what the author never meant they should find. Let me, then, say a word or two by way of explanation in reference to these “ Notes.” They are not intended to form a book of methodical instruction for anglers; nor do they pretend to be exhaustive of the subjects treated of. They are written on no very definite plan, though it will be seen that those which deal with the different fish con- iv PREFACE. secutively run to some extent in the same groove, the observations on the nomenclature of our fish, their natural history, and their gastronomic merits and demerits, taking up a far larger space than the remarks bearing on their capture. This little volume is really an unambitious one, as I wish its title toimply. I might almost call it a simple selection of “Notes” from my commonplace book on angling, and from the enormous mass of piscine and pis- catorial memoranda and extracts which have gradually accumulated round me; ora collection of “ chit-chat” and “gossip” for anglers; or, once again, a mere fairago— or a “hodge-podge””—of more or less disjointed remarks on Fish and Fishing, the result of many years of observation, reading, and experience in reference to the “ gentle art.” If Imay venture to say that my book has a special feature, that feature consists in the first four ‘“ Notes,” the second of which, on the “ Literature of Fishing,” deals more fully with a subject than I believe it has been dealt with before. Another feature is the introduction of a large number of quotations from and references to other authors, ancient and modern. I had an idea that such quotations and references might be both interesting and useful to many of my readers. Let me add, that if in any case I have quoted the words of an author without dis- tinctly acknowledging my indebtedness, I trust the fact may be put down to inadvertence rather than design. But if this be all I have to say on behalf of my book, it may be asked, ‘ What, then, is its raison @étre?” and “Why add another volume to the already heavily-laden shelves of angling literature ?”? I can only avswer that it pleased ine to write it, and an eminent firm of pub- lishers, whose house stands, appropriately enough in this PREFACE. Vv instance, on the spot where old Isaak Walton lived for many years, to publish it. Moreover, anglers, both old and young, seem ever ready for a new book on angling, whatever form it may assume; and I have been told or read that there are no less than 500 persons in the United Kingdom who make a practice of buying every fresh addition to the literature of fishing. Thus, to say the least of it, by producing this volume I am giving readers and collectors of angling books an opportunity of indulg- ing their respective fancies. I shall say no more in what may seem the direction of an apology for my book, for Ido not feel that any apology is really needed. I will only add that I shall be quite satisfied if my readers and “brother anglers”? receive a tithe of the pleasure in perusing these “ Notes” which I have experienced in putting them together. Scribere jussit amor. August, 1877. CONTENTS. NOTE I. ICHTHYOLOGY. PAGE Classification of fish—Their structure—* Queer fish ”—Hybrids— Senses of fish : vision, hearing, smelling, tasting—Do fish sleep ? —Do fish feel pain P—Tenacity of life—Diseases of fish—Food and digestive powers—Change of colour in fish—Do fish talk ? —Books on ichthyology . ‘ , : ; ; 2 in TH NOTE II. THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. Antiquity of angling literature—The “ Book of St. Alban’s,” by Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes)—Authors before Izaak Wal- ton—Walton’s contemporaries—Walton—Critics of Walton— Character of Walton—Proposed memorial to Walton-—Other contemporaries of Walton—Authors after Walton to end of 18th century—Authors from 1800 to present time-—Poetical literature of angling—Clergymen-authors on angling—General character of angling lilerature—Catalogues of angling litera- ture—Books on angling recommended—Angling cannot be learnt from books — Want of an “ Angler's Organ” . : 3 1B2 CONTENTS. NOTE III. FISHING AS A SPORT. vil PAGE Angling in England and other countries—Angling compared with hunting and shooting—Enthusiasm of anglers—Rationale of angling—Effect of field-sports on character—Character of anglers in Izaak Walton’s time and afterwards—Modern anglers—London anglers—Metropolitan angling clubs—An- gling contests—Anglers lovers of nature—< Devout” anglers —The virtues of anglers—Angling best recreation for “ brain- workers ’—Lady anglers NOTE IV. FISHING AS A FINE ART. Antiquity of angling—Ancient and modern fishing-tackle—Pro- gress of angling as an “ art””—Numberless questions to be con- sidered by anglers as to habitats and habits of fish, tackle, baits, &c.—Numberless expedients to be resorted to—Educa- tion of modern fish—The angler a meteorologist, geologist, entomologist, and naturalist generally—Character of the angler by Gervase Markham—Use of aquaria to anglers—Some sug- gestions . NOTE V. Tae Trout NOTE VI. THE GRAYLING . NOTE VII. Tur Jack NOTE VIII. Tur PERCH 71 98 . 124 . 165 . 184 . 220 vili CONTENTS. NOTE IX. PAGE THE Carp. - 4 3 : : : 238 NOTE X. Tus TexcH . ; ek ; 247 NOTE XI. THE BaRBEL. : : : J . 260 NOTE XII. Tue Bream : : ‘ ; 274 NOTE XIII. THE CHUB ‘ : : 283 NOTE XIV. Tue RoacH : . 2 ‘ . 294 NOTE XV. Tur Dacre : é ‘ ‘ ; . BOL NOTE XVI. Smatt Fry:—THe GupcEon . - A 1 31y NOTE XVII. Smatt Fry:—TuHe Bueak, tHE Popr, THE LoacH 328 NOTE XVIII. Sma, Fry:—Tur Minnow, THE STICKLEBACK 335 NOTE XIX. Smatt Fey:—Tae Mitire’s Taums, tan Crayrisu . ddb NOTE XxX. # Tuames ANGLING . : A : : : ‘ : . 350 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. NOTE I. ICHTHYOLOGY. “ Nature's great and wonderful power is more demonstrated in the waters than on land.” —Puny. Classification of fish—Their structure—“ Queer fish’—Hybrids— Senses of fish: vision, hearing, smelling, tasting—Do fish sleep ?— Do fish feel pain?—Tenacity of life—Diseases of fish—Food and digestive powers—Change of colour in fish—Do fish talk P—Books on ichthyology. Lut me at the outset say that in these ‘ Notes” I shall use the terms “ Angler” and “ Fisherman” as synony- mous, though I am quite aware that the former is the correct name to be applied to those who fish with hooks ; ayxov, “the elbow,” Latin Angulus, which originally signified anything bent, being probably the origin of the word, unless indeed we refer it to the German Anken, to fix, pierce, or to the Dutch Hanghen, to ‘“hang.”’ It is not, of course, necessary that an angler be a Zoologist, or even an Ichthyologist, to enjoy his pursuit ; but the more he knows of and studies natural history the greater the pleasure will he get out of his angling excursions. Certainly he should know something B 2 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. of the natural history of the creatures which are the objects of his sport, as, indeed, should all sportsmen in their several departments, and not pursue their quarry as mere savages. He will be amply rewarded by his studies, which will show him that fish are really the most interesting of all the great Classes of the animal world, and. still present the widest field for observation and investigation. Tam not, however, about to trouble my readers with any attempt at a learned discussion on ichthyology, or write a criticism on the scientific and unscientific Classifi- cations of fish from the time of Aristotle down to the naturalists of the present day. Let Gesner, Buffon, Linneus, Cuvier, Huxley, Owen, and a host of other learned authors be read by angler-naturalists as they have leisure; but suffice it for our present purpose to say that Fish belong to the great Vertebrate division of the Animal Kingdom as opposed to the Invertebrate, and that they are one of its great Classes, whether we take the Six Classes of Linnzeus, the Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, Ashes, Insects, and Worms, or the nine or more classes of other naturalists. The Orders and Sub-orders, Families and Sub-families, Sections and Sub-sections, into which fish have been divided and subdivided, are almost as numerous as the Chapters with their Sections and Sub- sections to which Burton, that most wondrous of “ book- makers,” has treated his readers in his Anatomy of Melancholy. Various too have been the principles on which fish have been divided and subdivided. Professor Owen, I believe, has classified them according to their Bones, or, to speak more scientifically, their “osseous structure ;” while another and most interesting prin- ICHTHYOLOGY. 3 ciple of classification is that adopted by M. Agassiz, who divides them into Four Classes according to the forma- tion of their Scales, thus—1. The Placoid, or flat-scaled (from the Greek wAaxods, a flat cake); 2. the Ganoid, or polished-scaled (from the Greek yavéw, to polish) ; 3. the Ctenoid, or tooth-scaled (from the Greek xreis, a comb); 4. the Cycloid, or circular-scaled (from the Greek xtcdos, a circle). To the first, or Placoid class, belong sharks, dog-fish, skates, and other cartilaginous fish, or fish without real bones; to the second, or Ganoid class, belong the sturgeon, who is also cartilaginous but “armour-plated’? with bony plates, and many fish now only known to us in their fossil state. To the third, or Ctenoid class, belong perch, pope or ruff, and pike; and to the fourth, or Cycloid class, carp, salmon, eels, and most of our edible fresh and salt-water fish. Many valuable characteristics of fish have been ascer- tained from the formations of their Scales, as also from the disposition of the Teeth, which are respectively situate upon the jaws, palate, tongue, and throat, and severally constructed for prehension, cutting, or crushing, thus indicating the character of food mostly taken by the several species. The age of fish may also be ascertained from their scales when examined under a strong microscope. For the purpose of angler-naturalists who do not care to go very deeply into ichthyology it will suffice to divide fish into the two great Orders of Acanthopterygit and Malacopterygiit, which (derived from Greek words) re- spectively signify “Spiny or prickly-finned” and “ Soft- finned” fish. Of the different fish with which I deal in these “ Notes,” the perch, the ruff, the bull-head, and the B 2 A NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. stickleback belong to the first-named class, as “ prickular of demonstration often brings home to the incautious angler ; while to the “ Soft-finned ” tribe, which may be handled with impunity, at least as regards their fins, belong the carp and all other fish I treat of, with the exception of the lampern, which belongs to the Plectognathi order (so named from the arrangement of the maxillary bones) ; and the cray-fish, which is, strictly speaking, no fish at all, but an Invertebrate animal, and a member of the great Class called “ Crustacea.” But under the two chief Orders above-named we must, for perspicuity sake, and at the same time to add to our interest in our captures, range the respective “ Families” of fish. These are many, but. Four only need concern us here, namely, the Percide family, which, of course, is represented by our perch; the Salmonide, by trout and grayling; the Hsocide, by pike; while the Cyprinidae, or carp family, comprises the great bulk of our fresh-water fish, viz. the common carp, barbel, bream, tench, roach, dace, chub, gudgeon, bleak, and minnow. The Structure of fish and their animal organization present almost endless subjects of interest and admira- tion. Though they live in the water, yet atmospheric air (oxygen) is equally the pabulum vite of fish and fishermen. Just as owr warm red blood is purified and restored in its vital and arterial qualities by air passing through our lungs, so is the cold red blood of fish by passing through their gills; and as by the process of breathing we extract the oxygen and s0 vitiate the air, in like manner do fish taking the water in at their mouths extract from it the air held in suspension, and pass it out under the gill-covers in a vitiated state. A man sub- ICHTHYOLOGY. 5 merged in water cannot extract air enough from it; a fish submerged in distilled water, which is water minus air, can get none at all, and the result is the same in both cases; and as most anglers know, or should know, a fish drawn down stream is simply drowned because the water is thus prevented entering its mouth in the usual way and escaping through the gill-covers. For the same reason fish making their way down stream for any distance travel, for the most part, tail first, at least so I have heard and read. An angler, therefore, when in combat with a big fish need not fear being laughed at as being “ Like those sages that would drown a fish.” The “ migratory” fish of India, i.e. fish which travel over- land from tanks and rivers, when drying up, in search of more suitable lodgings, illustrate the fact that fish to a great extent live by air. These fish will remain out of water some days, the little sponge-like structure in each cheek holding enough moisture to enable them to exist for this time out of their natural element; and we know that fish kept in wet moss will live for a very considerable period. How wonderfully are the Gills (branchie) of fish constructed! They are formed of numerous arches, bor- dered by a kind of fringe, which, when examined through a microscope, is seen to be covered by a velvet-like mem- brane, over which myriads of minute blood-vessels are spread, finer than the most delicate network. Over these the current of water equally flows, and the air is taken up by the blood, which is sent to the gills from the heart, distributed throughout the body, by means of arteries, and returned by the veins to the heart again. Thus, in an- swer to the 8rd Fisherman in Pericles, who said, “ Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea,” the 1st Fisherman 6 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. might have confined his reply to the words, “ Why, as men do on land,” without the addition, ‘‘the great ones eat up the little ones.” How admirably, too, are fish formed! Their elongate, oval, compressed configuration, and their smooth covering suiting them exactly to the element in which they live and move ; while from a continuous series of scales, marked by what is called the “ lateral line” (visible on almost every fish from its gill-covers to its tail), and pierced with a tube near their centre, a slimy, glutinous matter, secreted by glands beneath, is exuded, which not only preserves the surface of the body from the action of the water, but also decreases the friction, as does the composition laid on the bottom of a racing boat. Nor less suited to their purposes are the various Fins of fish, of which, by the way, the angler should know the proper names. There are the two Pectoral, or breast fins, which may be called the fore legs of a fish; the one or two Dorsal, or back fins; the Ventral, or belly fins; the Anal fin, between the belly fins and the tail; and the Caudal fin, the tail itself. The last-mentioned gives them their chief means of propulsion; the dorsal and anal fins effect their lateral movements; elevation and depression are pro- moted by the pectoral ; and quiescent suspension by the ventral fins ; though the “air,” or “swimming bladder,” a membranous pouch situated close under the spine, and capable of compression or expansion according to the will of the fish, is their chief means of raising or depressing themselves without any apparent use of the fins at all. The Strength of fish is very great; and I do not think I am wrong in saying that they are, for their size, the strongest of all Vertebrate animals. If I remember rightly, ICHTHYOLOGY. 7 Professor James Rennie has a chapter, illustrated with diagrams, on the “Strength of Fish,” in bis Alphabet of Scientific Angling. A screw propeller of a modern iron- clad is but a toy compared with the caudal fin of some fish, say of the barbel. The Fecundity of fish, their habits of Spawning, and the laws which influence them, are again almost inexhaustible topics of interest. For their wondrous construction, and adaptation to their conditions of existence, fish, as I have already intimated, are in my opinion the most interesting creatures in the animal world, and by no means the least beautiful. For beauty of symmetry and colouring several of our British fresh-water fish are conspicuous, while we are not troubled by those strange and hideous monstrosities found in other waters. Nor, again, can we boast many ‘‘ queer” fish, such as the “ flour fish” of China, with its black eyes; or the strange variety of carps which have been produced by “ cul- ture” in the “ Flowery Land,” in the shape of gold fish with tails manifold, and other abnormal developments; or the “crying fish’? of that same wonderful country, and the “swimming cow,’ or “tree-climbing perch” (Anabas Scandens—why have naturalists given this fish two names, one from the Greek the other from the Latin, both meaning the same thing—a getting up stairs ”’ ?), or the curious fish of Guiana, “ with four eyes, two on each side, one pair of which it keeps above and the other below the water as it swims ;” or Siamese-twin fish, a specimen of which is recorded tc have been caught in Canadian waters in 1833 ; but we have the “Croaking Trout” of the Carraclwddy pools in Wales, which certainly do utter something like a “croak” when taken, a peculiarity accounted for by some as the effects of their bewitchment by the monks of Strata 8 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Florida Abbey, and by others as an attempt on the part of the poor captives to utter their complaints in the Welsh language. We have, too—or perhaps I had better say we had, if an old writer is to be credited—“ fish without fins” in Lough Loman, and one-eyed fish in some of the Carnar- vonshire lakes, and a peculiar “ blue roach” is to be found in a pond on the Dartford marshes in Kent. I know we have blind fish, for I have seen them; but then they had for a long time been excluded from daylight in an under- ground reservoir of one of the London Water Companies, which shall be nameless. We probably also have some veritable Hybrids, crosses between carp and roach, and bream and roach, but I will not commit myself on this point, as I believe that most English naturalists hold that there is no such thing as a hybrid among fish. Continental naturalists, on the other hand, maintain that hybrids do exist, and point to a fish which is found in the fresh waters of Eastern Europe, and appears to be an intermediate between the common perch and the pike-perch (Luctoperca) ; and also among sea-fish to the intermediate between the two most common kinds of sea-perch, and to the hybrids between the plaice and the flounder. Professor von Siebold of Munich, a great authority, in his Fresh-water Fishes of Central Europe, names no less than five hybrids connected with the Cypri- nidee family; one between the common and the Crucian carp, another between the bream and some white fish (Leuciscus), a third between the bream and roach, a fourth between the bleak and German chub, which is closely allied to our chub, and the fifth between two fish of the Cyprinidee family, but unknown in our waters. Some years ago experiments by the Rev. Augustus Morgan, of ICHTHYOLOGY. 9 Macken, seemed to show conclusively that the sea-trout (Salmo Eriov) and the common trout (Salmo Fario) will produce a veritable hybrid. Mr. Buckland, I believe, in the year 1864, crossed the eggs of a salmon and common trout, but failed to hatch them. Here then, again, isa wide question still open; and I will only add that if there are no such things as hybrid fish, it is most strange; as fish have certainly more favourable conditions for hybrid- izing than birds, which undoubtedly do produce hybrids. But for real monstra informia ingentia we must look to the sea; as also for the strange forms of fish which have such wonderful resemblance to both animate and inanimate things on land, and which are thus spoken of in a “ Con- templation” in “divine Du Bartas :”— “God quicken’d in the sea and in the rivers, So many fishes of so many features, That in the waters we may see all creatures, Even all that in the earth are to be found, As if the world were in deep waters drown’d. For seas, as well as skies, have sun, moon, stars, As well as air—swallows, rooks, and stares ; As well as earth—vines, roses, nettles, melons, Mushrooms, pinks, gilliflowers, and many millions Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these, As very fishes living in the seas; ‘ As also rams, calves, horses, hares, and hogs, Wolves, urchins, lions, elephants, and dogs ; Yea, men and maids; and which I most admire, The mitred bishop and the cowled friar ; Of which examples but a few years since Were shown the Norway and Polonian Prince.” And probably the sea has still in it as many strange fish as ever came out of it, perhaps more strange and wonderful than even Piscator mentioned in his defence of 10 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. fishing in Izaak Walton’s “First Day.” We have, within the last few years, fairly “spotted” the sea- serpent; and, within a day or two of my inditing this note, a notice has appeared in one of our daily newspapers of a veritable merman or man-fish having been distinctly seen by the crews of two ships in different waters, only a week or so ago; not the traditional mermaid exactly, mulier formosa superné who desinit in piscem, but a merman, with fine beard and whiskers, though “ with slender waist as of a boy of fourteen,” ending en regle, with “a large forked tail.” Dr. Mayer assures us that in 1403 a.p., a mermaid was cast ashore near Haar- lem, who was fed on bread and milk, taught to spin, and wore clothes “like any Christian.’ And as a Chris- tian she was treated after death, for she was buried in a consecrated churchyard, having learnt to make the sign of the cross, though her attempts at speech were not very successful. In 1610 Captain Waithburn is recorded to have seen a mermaid in St. John’s Harbour, Newfound- land, who tried to get into his boat, and was only pre- vented from so doing by one of the men striking her most ungallantly with an oar. Now, however, after a long interval of disappearance, and in this prosaic latter half of the nineteenth century, we have the classic merman tribe coming to the fore again. What a fortune for a public aquarium, if a member of it could be safely “tanked”! But this is a digression from serious ichthyology. There are many questions most interesting to the angler as well as the ichthyologist in connexion with the Senses of fish. There is that of the Vision of fish ; one on which both anglers and naturalists seem to differ, some affirm. ICHTHYOLOGY. 11 ing that the vision of fish is very perfect, others the contrary. The eye, as Paley has pointed out in his Natural Theology, is in its structure well adapted to the element in which the fish lives; but it suggests that fish as a class are near-sighted, and that their vision is con- siderably impeded by its being covered by the common skin of the head, in order to defend the eyeball, fish, as is well known, having no eyelids. Stoddart, in his Scottish Angler, goes so far as to say that a trout “is a remarkably near-sighted fish, and cannot behold any object distinctly however large, unless within the range of eight or ten yards.” From this remark, which, by the way, if true of the trout, is true of most other fish, anglers might come to the conclusion that it matters little whether they show themselves or not, and that a great deal too much fuss is made about the colour and size of flies ; while, per contra, it might be argued that on account of this very defective- ness of vision it is all the more necessary to imitate nature as closely as possible with artificial flies, and that a shadow cast upon the waters, or a form presented which cannot be understood, has all the greater terror. Stewart, however, in his Practical Angler, says that “ of all senses the trout possesses, that of sight is the most perfect, and is the one which most affects the angler in pursuit of his vocation.” Ronald, in his Flyfisher’s Entomology, takes much the same view, and if his theory of “ optical refrac- tion,”’ whereby, as he shows in a diagram, the fisherman is “projected” high up in the air above the fish, is correct, the wonder is how we ever get near a trout at all. We see here, then, how, on this one single question, “ doctors differ,” and how wide a field is still open for experiment and observation. I will only add that the 12 NOTES ON FISIT AND FISHING. majority of practical anglers feel a very strong conviction that fish, and especially trout, have a very keen vision ; and we must not forget that trout are able to distinguish a fly long after evening has shaded off into night. There seems to be a similar difference of opinion among men of learning and men of practice in reference to the Hearing of fish. Cuvier says of fish, “ Living in the realms of silence, hearing would be of little use; con- sequently their ear is reduced to its simplest form, en- closed in the bony walls of the head, deprived of external auricle and internal cochlea, which must prevent them from being aware of any variety of sound.” Mr. Ronald, who had an observatory built on the banks of a trout stream for the purpose of noting the habits of the fish, says that repeated experiments of firing guns near trout when only a few inches under water had no effect on them, and therefore comes to the conclusion that anglers need not fear indulging in friendly chat and merry laugh. To him agrees Stewart, and also Stoddart, who says, “‘ They have no sense of hearing whatsoever.” Per contra, not a few good naturalists maintain that fish have an acute sense of hearing, Professor Wilson, for instance, and John Hunter, the physiologist ; the latter of whom says that fish are visibly affected by the firmg of a gun—a remark also made by Jesse, in Gleanings in Natural History. It seems also to be an established fact that fish in a pond may be trained to come to a person when called by the sound of a bell, or of music, or of the human voice. Probably the solution of the question lies in the theory of vibration—though of course all hearing is by vibra- tion—or as perhaps it might unscientifically be called, “concussion.” Water is said to be a good conductor of ICHTHYOLOGY. 13 sound—though here I fancy there is some confusion as to the difference of sound being conducted over water and through water—and hence fish get the benefit of it. But here again, I am confronted with the undoubted fact that trout have little perception of sound, as the iron-shod soles of the anglers’ wading boots “scrunch” over the rocks and gravel, and any one who has tried the experi- ment of dropping an iron chain into a river or pond, knows that very little sound above is produced by its falling on the stony bottom; and thus, in one sense, it would seem that water is a bad conductor of sound. But another fact tells strongly the other way; only here noise is made above and not under the water. It is the fact that a smart stamp of the foot on the floor of a punt will cause small fish to leap out of the water in all directions many yards distant. I have tried the ex- periment in the Thames many times when there has been little or no ripple on some broad part of the river, and I have seen small fish leap out as far distant as thirty to forty yards from my punt. Professor Wilson, who contributes a chapter on the “Physiology of Fish,” to “ Ephemera’s” Handbook of Angling, after remarking that the ear of a fish, as contrasted with that of a land animal, “is adapted to the rude oscillations of a denser element,” says, “fishes must therefore hear with tole- rable acuteness, particularly such sounds as occasion a vibration of the element in which they reside, for example, an approaching footstep.” I shall certainly not commit myself to any strong expression of opinion on this “ hear- ing ” question; but I will venture to give this safe advice to anglers, namely, that though it may not be necessary to be as dumb as members of a Quakers’ meeting, it is as 14 NOTRS ON FISH AND FISHING. well to give fish the credit of hearing, or something equivalent to hearing, in some way or other, as well as of seeing. Perhaps the discovery that the swimming bladder is physically connected with the ears, or so-called ears of fish, may help towards the solution of this point. Cognate to those just alluded to is the further question, whether fish are gifted to any considerable extent with the senses of Smell and Taste. The anatomy of a fish shows that the nerves of smell are comparatively large, but several naturalists of mark argue that, from the struc- ture of the nostril and the want of an aerial medium, fish cannot smell at all, and that the nostrils perform a func- tion similar to taste. Stoddart says of trout, that through their power of smell they “ discern their food at a singular distance, and will track it, like the sleuth, for many yards.” So says an eminent French naturalist. Mr. Ronald, above alluded to, made many experiments from his obser- vatory to test the taste of trout, but confesses that the subject is one of great difficulty. He used to blow them various kinds of food through tubes, and the fact that they took dead house-flies when plastered with cayenne and mustard, seems more than any other to have led him to conclude, that “ if the animal had taste, his palate was not peculiarly sensitive.’ Sir Humphry Davy, in his Salmonia, says, “The principal use of the nostrils in fishes, I believe, is to assist in the propulsion of water through the gills, for performing the office of respiration ; but I think there are some nerves in these organs which give fishes a sense of the qualities of water, or of sub- stances dissolved in or diffused through it, similar to our sense of smell, or perhaps, rather, our sense of taste; for there can be no doubt that fishes are attracted by scented ICHTHYOLOGY. 15 worms, which are sometimes used by anglers that employ ground-baits.” Possibly the organ of taste in fish, if taste they have, does not reside in the mouth. However, that they have some considerable faculties of taste or smell, or of both combined, is pretty evident from the fact that they are attracted by chemically flavoured pastes and oils. Our forefathers, anglers and naturalists, doubtless talked a great deal of nonsense on this point, but the main fact cannot be denied. Trout are attracted long distances by salmon roe prepared in a certain manner. The fact that trout and perch will sometimes take an arti- ficial worm made, say, of india-rubber, may be used as an argument on both sides of this question ; for, on the one hand, it may be argued that they have little taste or smell to take such a thing into their mouths, while on the other, the fact may be adduced that they immediately eject, or try to eject, the treacherous bait thus taken. Do Fish Sleep ?—It may be presumed to start with, that they do; otherwise they would form an exception to all other Vertebrate animals. I need hardly say that the fact of their having no eyelids to close would be no bar even to profound sleep. Many human beings sleep with one eye or both eyes open, or partially so—notably infants ; and hares are credited with sleeping with both eyes wide open, though I cannot vouch for the truth of the asser- tion. We may conclude, perhaps, that fish, if they require sleep at all, do not require so much as land animals, which are greater consumers of oxygen, and at the same time have less nerve and muscle in proportion than fish. The physiological cause of, and necessity for, sleep in land animals is the enfeebling of the heart and lungs by volun- tary action. A suspension of voluntary action brings 16 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. about a recuperation of the vital powers. The conditions of existence in fish are not so very dissimilar from those of land animals, and though their greater muscular strength and greater ease in using it may, as I have said, enable them to dispense with prolonged sleep, they pro- bably could not do without it altogether. It may, how- ever, be suggested that fish in very rapid streams, trout especially, must expend a very great amount of strength in order to “ keep their place ;” and a big trout, we know, will keep his place almost to an inch for a whole season if not disturbed. Buta counter-suggestion may be made to the effect, that at night fish may seek the comparatively quiet parts of rivers, “nooks and corners,” for sleeping pur- poses. Still, even in this case, the difficulty occurs as to their being able to really sleep, as it would seem impos- sible that voluntary action could be altogether suspended. Query—Do they swim in their sleep, as somnambulists walk in their sleep? Ofcourse the case is different in perfectly still waters. But as to the fact whether they sleep or not by night, or whether they take an occasional nap or siesta by day—what is the evidence? No one, as the proverb suggests, ever “ caught a weasel asleep,” and I do not know of any one who ever caught a fish asleep. A friend of mine, a good angler and ardent naturalist, adduces as evidence of fish sleeping the fact, which he says he has established by experiment and observation— viz. that for about six hours during the night in winter, and about two in summer, no sound of fish moving is to be heard, and none are to be taken by any bait, with the exception of eels, which are clearly nocturnal in their habits. He says also that he has constantly taken chub with a white moth all through the early part of a summer’s ICHTHYOLOGY. 17 night, but that the fish have suddenly ceased rising just two hours before dawn, and have remained quiescent until dawn had quite broken. Perhaps further light might be thrown on this topic by the careful observation of fish in tanks, “Do Fish feel Pain?” is a question which must often suggest itself to the angler, and many must have often wished that they could unhesitatingly answer it in the negative. I think they may do so. Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell, as learned a naturalist as he is an accomplished angler, in a pamphlet published a few years ago, amply demonstrated that fish do not feel pain, at least in the same manner, and certainly not anything like to the same degree, as warm-blooded land animals. A frog, which is a cold-blooded animal, evidently feels little or no pain, do what you will with him. You may open him, and inspect the action of his heart, and when released he will hop away apparently as happy as ever. You may vivisect him in almost any way you like, and he seems not a bit the worse for it than was the Jackdaw of Rheims for the shower of ecclesiastical curses. Fish certainly seem to feel no pain from hooks stuck in their mouths. Trout are often taken with artificial flies attached to them, and a jack, after being hooked and played and lost, will take a bait again the same day. I have had instances of both happen to me. In fishing Mr. Abel Smith’s water, near Hertford, a few years ago, I lost a trout of about 2lbs. at one of the waterfalls, and I took him with my fly in his mouth about four hours afterwards; and a similar occur- rence happened in the case of a jack of 4lbs., when I was fishing the water near Mr. Ward’s mill, at Stanwell, Middlesex. It is all very pretty, but it is not true, that c 18 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “The poor beetle which we tread upon, In corporal sufferance feels a pang As great as when a giant dies.” The lower the animal organization the less sensibility to pain. What may be the mental sensations of a fish when hooked and when being played, or when deposited in the well of a punt, is another matter. Of course, ina certain sense, it is “as bad to be killed as frightened to death,” aud doubtless, under the above-named conditions, a fish has a bad time of it; but I think an angler, if ever prosecuted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, would escape conviction, on the ground that it cannot be shown that fish feel pain. But even supposing they do, and that their mental sensations are of a particularly unpleasant character when brought into contact with the angler, I shall cut the matter short by boldly saying that, in my opinion, the angler is quite justified in inflicting this cruelty (if it pleases any one so to term it) in the pursuit of sport. I hold that when man was given dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, he had authority given him to utilize them in any and every way for his benefit, and not merely for the purposes of food. He utilizes certain animals for his benefit by employing them for draught purposes, though, of course, he could carry and drag his own burdens. In fact he utilizes them for his own comfort and pleasure. In like manner he utilizes other animals for his pleasure in the way of sport—in hunting, and shooting, and fishing. Field sports conduce to his pleasure, and even to his well- being, calculated as they are to develope the mens sana in ICHTHYOLOGY. 19 corpore sano, especially when his life is surrounded by many of the debilitating accessories of civilization, or for the most part spent in sedentary or mentally exhausting occupations. J hold, therefore, thatthe angler is justified in dealing with fish as he does, and that no fair charge of cruelty lies against him, unless he exercises unnecessary cruelty. Recently Lord Justice Kelly, in an appeal case in reference to cock “ dubbing,” laid it down that, “in his opinion, any act which caused an animal pain, and was not absolutely necessary for the future well-being of that animal, constituted cruelty within the meaning of the Act,” i. Martin’s Act, as it is called. If the learned Judge’s definition and ruling is to stand, it may be well for a moment to contemplate the result. Of course, it would at once settle the vivisection question, i.e. unless the Vivisection Act overrules it; hunting, shoot- ing, and fishing (presuming for a moment that fish feel pain) could at once be stopped by the prosecution of sportsmen ; terriers’ ears must, be cropped no longer, or, more strictly speaking, no shorter; horses, mules, and donkeys must not be broken in for draught or saddle purposes or circuses; lambs’ tails must not be cut; and so forth ad infinitum, because these pursuits and practices are “ not absolutely necessary for the future welfare” of the animals affected by them. What may be the sensa- tions of fish in dying a lingering death when taken from the water, of course we cannot tell. They certainly can- not be pleasant, and therefore the thoughtful angler, when he does not wish to preserve his fish alive for any particular purpose, will give them a tap on the top of the head directly onlanding them. By the way, how strange it is that Mr. Freeman, who declaims so acridly against c 2 20 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. hunting and shooting, has nothing to say against fishing ! Perhaps it is one of the “sins he is inclined to.” And this leads me to make a remark or two on the Tenacity of Life in Fish. ‘ What is life?’ is a puzzling question in reference to all animals, but especially so as regards fish. Where does it reside—what is its seat in fish? “In the heart or in the head?” or where? This is a matter concerning which physiologists and ichthyo- logists have much to investigate. Here is one instance out of many which might be adduced of the tenacity of life in fish—in this case in perch. Last year I caught half a dozen of these fish at Maidenhead, ranging from 31b. to 2lbs. On getting ashore in the evening my fisher- man, following my directions, took them from the punt well, gave each one a sharp rap on the head, as is usual, with the thick handle of his well-net, scaled them from head to tail, cut them open from one end of the belly to the other, and thoroughly cleared them of their gills and every part of their viscera. They were then putin a fish- basket, which, when I got into the train at Taplow station, was placed in the netting above my head. When I was about half-way on my road back to London I heard and saw a movement in the basket. I opened it and found the perch alive, and one which I took in my hand struggled like a fish which had only been a short time out of the water. I made some remark about “ muscular con- traction,” and closed the basket. When I got home, about two hours and a half after the fish had been killed, three of them were still alive—scaleless, gilless, bowelless! The section of an eel waltzing in a fryine- pan hardly eclipses this. In a number of Hardwicke’s Science Gossip, about twelve years ago, there was a ICHTHYOLOGY. 21 detailed account of the microscopical examination of the swimming bladders of some perch which had been dead fifteen hours. In the blood-vessels interlacing them the blood corpuscles were observed to be still in active circu- lation. Probably the chief seat of life in a fish is in the spinal cord. In connexion with the tenacity of life in fish is their power of preserving vitality under other “ un- favourable” circumstances than those I have just mentioned. Sir John Franklin discovered fish perfectly frozen, but afterwards capable of resuscitation, a fact which has since been illustrated on many occasions. This peculiarity is, I believe, confined to cold-blooded animals; for they alone can preserve vitality for any lengthened period in a frozen condition. It was, however, but a few days ago that I read in the newspapers (and, of course, all we read in the papers must be true), an account of a man in Canada being frozen into a solid mass, and brought home for dead some three or four days afterwards. His coffin was made ready for him, but gradually the warmth of the domestic hearth thawed him, and he soon got up and went about his business. Fish in India and Ceylon live in the mud of the tanks, though the top becomes thoroughly baked and hardens after the water has been drawn off for many weeks, and the natives consequently do their angling with spades. Several of our own fish will live buried in mud for a considerable time, and probably some of them hybernate in this way for a longer or shorter period; but this is another point which requires further investigation. But whatever be the principle or seat of life in fish, and whatever be their tenacity of life, certain it is that at last they go the way of all flesh, and like “golden lads and girls” and “ chimney-sweepers come to dust,” or some- 22 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. thing equivalent to it. And this is brought about by disease and the legitimate wiles of anglers and the illegi- timate wiles of poachers. The Diseases of Fish offer too wide a field for me more than cursorily to allude to them here. Like the poor bull in Virgil’s Georgics, they suffer many bodily ailments, though they “ play no tricks” with their bodies, as we civilized men and women do. They are victims especially to internal and external parasites, the former afflicting them most. Of the internal para- sites, nearly all those found in the intestines of fish are only in the first stage of their life-cycle, which is not fully de- veloped until they have passed into the bodies of birds or quadrupeds, and in some cases into the human system itself. Dr. Cobbold, in the Synopsis of the Distomide, says that of the 844 species of “ fluke”? (or trematoda), no less than 126 are found in fish, and that this species of entozoa are “ particularly plentiful in the stickleback, minnow, tench, perch, pope, trout, salmon, and still more abundant in pike, barbel, and bream.’ The gyrodactylus elegans attaches itself to the gills and fins of the last- named fish; anguillulide, of the order of Hematoda, or round worms, are found in nearly all fresh-water fish: the “ thorn-headed ” worms are the special bane of roach, and to be afflicted with Echinorhynchide, as roach and trout are, to the wasting of their poor bodies, sounds as terrible an affliction as Mlephantiasis in the human being. The Cestoda, or tapeworm, is another most common para- site in the intestines of our fresh-water fish, and some- times creatures of this species when measured are found as long as the fish from which they are taken. Then again there is Ligala dignamma, which afflicts many fish, especially barbel, and renders their blood nearly colour- ICHTHYOLOGY. 23 less, the fins pallid, and the eye abnormally yellow, while a malignant pustule often shows itself beneath the scales, which gradually drop off. Epidemics, too, of various types, from time to time break out among fish in different waters. Some years ago a disease appeared among the grayling in the river Itchen, and hundreds died, rising to the top of the water, as if poisoned by coc- culus indicus. Last summer a kind of “scarlet fever” manifested itself among eels, at least so said the natu- ralists. For some weeks after the opening of the West- minster Aquarium many species of fresh-water fish were afflicted with a kind ef fungoid growth over their whole bodies, and there was a great mortality among the deni- zens of the tanks. The hardness of the water had pro- bably something to do with this, and it probably also is the cause of the same or a similar disease among fish in private aquaria. Fish thus affected may be successfully treated by a solution of bichloride of mercury, say 18 grs. to 6 oz. of water. Take the fish and first rub off the fungus with a brush or cloth or fingers, and then, with a camel’s- hair brush, paint the affected parts of the body with the solution. All this can be done in a few seconds, and one application will generally be found sufficient. The water, however, of the aquarium should be changed daily fur some time. It is hardly necessary to add that fish are very sen- sitive to the poisonous refuse of mines and chemical works, and sad havoc has been played in more than one river of late years by this abomination: and it is evident that the last Act of Parliament in reference to the Pollution of Rivers requires considerable amendment before it will efficiently protect fishfrom what is really most wanton destruction. Fish are also very susceptible to magnetic influences QA NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. and violent concussions, which will frequently destroy them in large numbers. To one of these causes may probably be attributed the destruction of tons of fish on the shores of America in the spring of 1877, the outburst of a subterranean volcano, or subterranean earthquake, being a sufficient reason for the phenomenon. In the reign of Charles X., an explosion of gunpowder on the banks of the Seine destroyed quantities of fish for a long way up and down the river; and we know that rascally poachers in the north and other parts of the kingdom now employ dynamite in their nefarious pursuits, showing that a violent concussion of the water (and perhaps in some cases, compression) is “death to the fish.” What will happen in the case of a great war in which torpedoes are freely used is something terrible to contemplate in connexion with the poor fish, and it is to be hoped, if only on their account, the Anti-Torpedo Society just established will get this instrument of war abolished from the “ civilized ” list of lawful “ engines.” This is what Gilbert White, in his most pleasant Natural History of Selborne, says of the Death of Fish, “As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands as it were on its head; till, getting weaker and losing all power, the tail turns over, and at last ib floats on the surface of the water with its belly uppermost. The reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that manner, is very obvious: because when the body is no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly uppermost, as lighter, from its being a cavity, and because it contains the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant.” ICHTHYOLCGY. 25 There are other questions connected with the economy of fish hardly less interesting than those already men- tioned. For instance, those connected with the Food and Digestive powers of Fish. It might seem that fish are able to live without taking any other food than that which they extract from the water which passes in at their mouths. A herring has, or seems to have, no food in its stomach whenever or wherever it is caught; and nothing but “a sort of yellow fluid”’ is ever found in the stomach of a salmon ; while gold-fish will not only live for months, but increase visibly in size without having positive food given them. Probably fish are able to extract much more nutriment from the water and from the air in the water than at first might be thought possible ; and there can be little doubt but that, like several cold-blooded creatures, snakes and frogs to wit, they can endure long periods of fasting. Still, as a matter of fact, they do eat ; and that most voraciously at times, as any one may see by opening the miscellaneous larder of a jack, or an aldermanic trout when gorged with the tender may-fly ; and though gold-fish will live very long without food, they most greedily devour crumbs of bread, and worms when given to them. That the digestion of fish is very quick is shown by the fact that solid food is reduced to a pulp very soon after being taken; and certain it is that the gastric juice is most powerful in many fish, particularly so in the jack, who can digest a gorge-hook with its lead within afew days; and it has been proved by experiment that eels, carp, bream, and other fish can digest food given to them in metal tubes. This is very strange; inasmuch as the general law seems to be that rapidity of digestion depends in a great measure upon the degree of 26 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. heat in any animal body ; and the natural heat of fish is very low. Here, then, I will leave this point; and my readers will again notice that I leave it, as I have left others, without any special expression of my own opinion ; my object being rather to show how many interesting questions there are in connexion with ichthyology, and the almost endless field of study it still offers us. Several fish, I mean fish of the same species, exhibit a diversity and change of Colouring, dependent on the different seasons of the year, the depth of water in which they swim, the nature of the ground and vegetation about them, and the food they take ; but how this diversity and change is brought about seems to be still a vexed question. Sea fish are subject to these variations, particularly had- dock, sea-bream, whiting-pollack, soles, conger-eels, and cod; while the turbot has the power of darkening its spots, or perhaps better say its spots are darkened under the influence of fear. Among our own fresh-water fish trout are the most susceptible of these changes, and they will vary according to the depth of water and different conditions of the different parts of a lake in which they are taken. If one of two trout of the same colouring be placed in a vessel with yellow glaze inside, and the other in a vessel with brown or black glaze, the fish will quickly assume the hue of the respective vessels; but change them from one vessel into the other, and again they quickly adapt themselves in colour to their surround- ings. The same phenomenon may be observed in the case of minnows, which change their hues in a bait-kettle according as its inside is of bright tin, or lined with a dark colour. Thus some fish seem to have “the perception of congruity, and put their coats in agreement with near ICHTHYOLOGY. 27 objects ;”’ but whether this phenomenon arises from an action of will on the part of the fish, or is a kind of involuntary or unconscious sympathy dependent on some “law of colours,” is still to be determined. It certainly seems a general, or at least a very prevalent, law of nature that wild animals, birds, beasts, and fish, more or less assimilate in colour with the surroundings of their special existence. Can Fish Speak ? (i.e. to one another): or have they any powers of “vocal utterance’’? Aischylus calls fish, at least his chorus in the Perse calls them, the ‘‘ Voice- less daughters of the unpolluted one;”’ but many of the ancients and moderns testify to the utterances of fish. Pliny, Ovid, and others tell us of the Scarus and its wonderful powers of intonation. In the days of old Rome the Mureznas were supposed to have a regular language “low, sweet, and fascinating ;”? and the Em- peror Augustus pretended to understand their very words. I have read of the various sounds produced by gurnards, of the “booming ” of the “bearded drum-fish,” of the “noisy maigre,’ and of the “ grunt-fish”” of the Gulf of Mexico, which, though with an imperfect voice, “ can express discontent and pain,’ and which, when touched with a knife, “fairly shrieks, and “when dying makes moans and sobs disagreeably human.” Our English fresh-water fish are apparently dumb, with the exception of the “ croaking trout’ mentioned a page or two back, and I might, perhaps, add carp, which make a strange “sucking”? noise when on hot summer days they put their noses out into the “upper air” from the beds of water-lilies or aquatic weeds, to take in an extra supply of oxygen, or “just for the fun of the thing.” But of 28 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. course this is not “ talking,’’ nor is it really a “vocal ut- terance,” still I am strongly impressed with the idea that fish can talk to one another, like other dumb animals, as the traditional Irishman might say, at least “in their way.” JI have watched for hours small fry in ponds and rivers, and fish of all sizes in aquaria, and the manner in which they dart up to one another, put noses together for a moment, and dart off again with an air as much as to say “all right,” leads me to the conclusion that they can make communications to one another which I am satisfied to call “ talking.”’ It has certainly often struck me that fish make themselves understood to one another much more quickly than other dumb animals. Gilbert White, who of course “ holds a brief for birds,” says that ‘‘ many of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices adapted to express their various passions, wants, and feelings, such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like;”’ and then adds quaintly, “ No bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, though some are rather silent. The language of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and understood.” As I “hold a brief” for the fish, I maintain that this “ quite mute” expression is a libel, and Iam glad to see that White’s Editor (in 1833) comes to the rescue, and instances on behalf of the vocal powers of fish, the “ grunting ” of the gurnard when taken from a hook, the “ shrill ery like a mouse” of a herring just caught in a net, and the statement of a Mr. John Thompson of Hull, who said that some tench “croaked like a frog for a full half-hour” after he had got them in his basket. Of course I do not seriously argue that fish talk to one another. I must confess that ICHTHYOLOGY. 29 they are “ rather silent,” and that their language (what- ever it be) is “very elliptical.” But still, as I have said, I believe that they have the power of making intelligible communications to one another, mouth to mouth; and as I have frequently ‘noticed, or fancied I did, a kind of ‘‘ know- ing look” about their eyes, I shall at least credit these intelligent creatures, as Thomson credited Celadon and his Amelia, with “looking unutterable things.” I must now bring this ichthyological “‘ Note” to a con- clusion; and as it has extended itself to a length beyond that which I had anticipated, I must perforce leave much unsaid which I should have wished to have said. To those who would dip deeper into the Natural History of Fish, I would first of all recommend Baron Cuvier’s immortal work, while the two standard works on British Fish are those by Yarrell and J. Couch, a new edition of which latter I am glad to hear is about to be published by.Messrs. Bell and Son. The more “familiar” histories of our fish are those by H. P. Gosse, F. Buck, and Frank Buckland, and that published by Cassell and Co. Jukes’s Manual of Geology may also be consulted with advantage ; and there isa little book by James Rennie, M.A., formerly Professor of Zoology at King’s College, The Alphabet of Scientific Angling, full of curious and interesting ichthyolo- gical gossip. The edition I have is that published by Orr and Smith, Paternoster Row, 1836. Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell’s Angler-Naturalist is also a book which will be read with pleasure by all who aspire to that title; but of all books on Fish and Fishing in which the ichthyological element is strong there is not one which has given me half the pleasure that Badham’s Ancient and Modern Fish Tattle has. 30 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Mr. John H. Keene, who comes of a well-known angling “stock,” and has, I am glad to hear, started as a professional Thames fisherman at Wraysbury, is paying special attention to this subject, and as he is as good a fisherman as he is a naturalist, an angler who desires to know somewhat of ichthyology may spend a very pleasant and profitable day in his company. The result of many of his researches into the various diseases of fish, and of other ichthyological investigations, have from time to time appeared in the pages of several London journals. A connected treatise from his pen would find many readers. But books and oral instructors are but poor teachers unless supplemented by personal observation. I would therefore advise all anglers who would also be naturalists to. pay frequent visits to aquaria, and patiently watch the occupants of the tanks. Such visits will often suggest valuable hints on the art of angling itself. Most profit- able and most interesting too is the study of fish casts and paintings and a thousand odds and ends of things piscatorial in Mr. Frank Buckland’s Museum of Fish and Fish Culture at South Kensington. Most true is it, as Horace says in the trite quotation,— “ Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam que sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus,” which, being briefly translated, is “Seeing is better than hearing.” I trust I have said enough to show how interesting a study is ichthyology, and that the angler’s pleasures would be considerably enhanced if he were only “a bit of” an ichthyologist ; and once more to repeat myself, I hold ICHTHYOLOGY. 3l there is no more engaging study in the wide field of Zoology. So many and so various are the forms of fish in the mighty waters, so manifold are their structures and adaptations to the conditions of their existence, that the mind becomes almost lost in wonder and admiration. I care not for learned disquisitions as to the origin of the different types and species of the great tribe of fish, for “natural selection,” and the “ survival of the fittest,” or the “ gradual physical adaptation of an animal to its wants and desires” (by which I suppose the Anabas Scandens in the course of millions of years learnt to climb trees), nor for the subtle theories of the great triumvirate of modern science, Messrs. Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley. I am content to believe that “in the beginning” the great types and individual species of animal life “which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind” were the direct handiwork of the Great Creator, and to say, “How manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all,” 32 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. NOTE II. THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. * Of making many books there is no end.” “ Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”—Bacon. Antiquity of angling literature—The “ Book of St. Albans,” by Dame Juliana Berners. (or Barnes)—Authors before Izaak Walton—Wal- ton’s contemporaries—Walton—Critics of Walton—Character of Walton— Proposed memorial to Walton—Other contemporaries of Walton—Authors after Walton to end of 18th century—Authors from 1800 to present time—Poetical literature of angling—Clergy- men-authors on angling—General character of angling literature— Catalogues of angling literature—Books on angling recommended— Angling cannot be learnt from books—Want of an “ Angler’s Organ.” Amona the ancients there is no one who can fairly claim to be called an author on angling, except Oppian, who wrote his Halieutica, five books in Greek on the nature of Fish and Fishing, some time in the latter half of the second century, a translation of which by Diaper and Jones (1722), is by no means bad reading. But the art of Fishing or Angling can claim the distinction of being one of the first subjects treated of in a printed book in this country, for within ten years of Caxton issuing from his press in Westminster (Westmestre) his first book printed in England, Dictcs and Sayinges of the Philo- sophers (1477), Wynken de Worde published the famous THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 33 ‘book by Dame Juliana Berners, afterwards known as the Booke of St. Albans, in which the good and accomplished Prioress of Sopwell, near St. Alban’s, discourses on “ the dysporte of fysshyng.” This book was first published in 1486 a.p., and contained “treatises”? or chapters on hunting, hawking, horses, and coat-armour, and incor- porated with them one on fishing, thus introduced,— “Here begynnyth the treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle.” Whether Dame Juliana Berners was a lady angler herself does not appear, but that she held the art in high estimation and wished others equally to respect it is seen from the following paragraph appended to her discourse :— “ And for by cause that this present treatyse sholde not come to the hondys of eche ydle persone, whyche wolde desire it yf it were em- prynted allone by itself, and put in a lytyll plaunflet; therfore I haue compylyd it in a greter volume of dyuerse bokys concernynge to gentyll and noble men. To the intent that the forsayd ydle persones whyche scholde haue but lytyll mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshyng sholde not by this meane vtterly dystroye it.” On the last leaf of this book. appears the device of Wynken de Worde, and on the reverse that of Caxton ; but this leaf is wanting in the copy in the British Museum. But the good Prioress herself, or some one with her consent, or without it, (for perhaps the law of copyright was as imperfect then as now,) a few years after the publi- cation of her larger work republished the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle in a separate form, and after this several editions (eleven in all, as far as I can make out, and all in small 8vo) were published with the treatises on hawking, hunting, and fishing combined, “with all the D 34 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. propertyes and medecynes that are necessary to be kepte.” The discourse of Juliana Berners is certainly quaint from our modern point of view, but her observations on tackle-making, baits, and angling generally, show that there existed in her time some considerable knowledge of the art, and perhaps that she herself was a proficient in it, or at least well able to cope with the uneducated fish of the period. She discusses also ichthyologically the various kinds of river fish, and their merits as food. She introduces her subject thus (taking the more modern English of later editions) :— “Solomon in his parables saith that a good spirit maketh a flower- ing age, that is, a fair age andalong. And sith it is so: I ask this question, which be the means and the causes that induce a man into a merry spirit? Truly to my best discretion, it seemeth good disports and honest games in whom a man joyeth without any repentance after. Then followeth it that good disports and honest games be cause of man’s fair age and long life. And therefore, now will I choose of four good disports and honest games, that is to wit: of hunting, hawking, fishing, and fowling.” She has no hesitation in saying, “The best to my simple discretion which is fishing, called angling with a rod and a hook ;” and then she goes on to contrast these sports :— “Hunting as to my intent is too laborious, for the hunter must always run and follow his hounds, travelling and sweating full sore; he bloweth till his lips blister; and when he weneth it be a hare, full oft it is a hedge-hog. Thus he chaseth and wots not what. He cometh home at even, rain-beaten, pricked, and his clothes torn, wet shod, all miry, some hound lost, some surbat. Such griefs and many other happeneth unto the hunter, which for displeasance of them that love it I dare not report. Thus truly me seemeth that this is not the best disport and game of the said four, The disport and game of THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 30 hawking is laborious and noisome also as me seemeth; for often the falconer loseth his hawks, as the hunter his hounds, then is his game and his disport gone; full often crieth he and whistleth till that he be right evil athirst. His hawk taketh a bow and list not once on him reward; when he would have her for to flee, then will she bathe; with misfeeding she shall have the fronce, the eye, the cray, and many other sicknesses that bring them to the souse. Thus by proof this is not the best game and disport of the said four. The disport and game of fowling me seemeth most simple, for in the winter season the fowler speedeth not, but in the most hardest and coldest weather; which is grievous; for when he would go to his gins he may not for cold. Many a gin and many a snare he maketh; yet sorrily doth he fare; at morn-tide in the dew he is wet shod unto his tail. Many other such I could tell, but dread of meagre maketh me for to leave. Thus me seemeth that hunting and hawking and also fowling be so laborious and grievous, that none of them may perform nor be very mean that induce a man to a merry spirit; which is cause of his long life according unto the said parable of Solomon.” Ido not think my readers will be wearied if I continue this quaint passage, which thus proceeds :— “ Doubtless then followeth it that it must needs be the disport of fishing with an angle; for all other manner of fishing is also laborious and grievous: often making folks full wet and cold, which many times hath been seen cause of great infirmities. But the angler may have no cold nor no disease, but if he be causer himself. For he may not lose at the most but a line or a hook: of which he may have store plenty of his own making as this simple treatise shall teach him. So then his loss is not grievous, and other griefs may he not have, saving but if any fish break away after that he is taken on the hook, or else that he catch nought; which be not grievous. For if he fail of one he may not fail of another, if he doth as this treatise teacheth; but if there be nought in the water. And yet at the least he hath his wholesome walk and merry at his ease, a sweet air of the sweet savour of the mead flowers; that maketh him hungry. He heareth the melodious harmony of fowls. He seeth the young swans, herons, ducks, coots, and many other fowls with their broods; which me seemeth better than all the noise of hounds, the blast of horns, and the cry of fowls that hunters, falconers, and fowlers can make. And if the angler take D2 36 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. fish, surely there is no man merrier than he is in his spirit. Also whoso will use the game of angling, he must rise early, which thing is profitable to man in this wise, that is to wit, most to the heal of his soul. For it shall cause him to be holy, and to the heal of his body, for it shall cause him to be whole. Also to the increase of his goods, for it shall make him rich. As the old English proverb saith in this wise, whoso will rise early shall be holy, healthy, and zealous. Thus have I proved in my intent that the disport and game of angling is the very mean and cause that induceth a man into a merry spirit : which after the said parable of Solomon, and the said doctrine of physic, maketh a flowering age anda long. And therefore, to all you that be virtuous, gentle, and free-born I write and make this simple treatise, following by which ye may have the full craft of angling to disport you at your last, to the intent that your age may the more flower and the more longer to endure.” Our authoress concludes her treatise by giving all kinds of good advice. To rich anglers she says, “fish not in no poor man’s water,’ and “break no man’s gins.” To all “break no man’s hedges,” and “open no man’s gates, but that ye shut them again.” Anglers are to “ use this foresaid crafty disport for no covetousness,’ but for “solace,” and health to both body and soul; not to take too many persons in their company, so that they may “not be let of their game,”’ or prevented “ serving God de- voutly in saying affectuously their customable prayer;’’? and lastly, they are not to be “ too ravenous in taking game,” or ‘to take too much at one time,” which they “might lightly do, if in every point they do as this present trea- tise showeth them.” With a final injunction to anglers, that they “nourish the game,” and “ destroy all such things as be devourers of it,” she assures them that “if they do after this rule they shall have the blessing of God and St. Peter.” The first edition of the Booke of St. Albans was re- THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 37 printed in fac-simile by Mr. Haselwood (London), 1819 ; and the separate Treatyse of Fysshing wyth an Angle, from this edition was reprinted by W. Pickering, in crown 8vo, with Baskerville’s types, in 1827. This, then, is the first contribution to the Literature of Fishing. But Dame Juliana, however much she may have stimulated the practice of angling itself, does not appear to have immediately stimulated angling author- ship. It was not till 1590 that the first edition of Leonard Mascall’s Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line, and all other instruments thereunto belonging, appeared. With the exception, however, of some remarks on the “preservation of fish in ponds,”’ it does not contain much in the way of improvement on Juliana. William Gryn- dall’s Hawking, Hunting, Fowling, and Fishing, now newly collected.by W. G. Faukener,’ was published in 1596 a.p. Samuel Gardiner, Doctor of Divinity, in his Booke of Angling or Fishing, which appeared in 1606, teaches us “by conference with Scriptures, the agreement betweene the Fisherman, Fishes, and Fishing of both natures, tem- porall and spirituall.” We now come to what may be called the Waltonian period. Barker’s Art of Angling, wherein are discovered many rare secrets very necessary to be known by all that delight in that recreation, was first published in 1651, i. e. two years before the first edition of Walton’s “ Com- pleat Angler.’ The name of the book seems to have been changed into that of Barker’s Delight, when it ap- peared in a second edition, with considerable additions, in 1657. Barker was evidently a quaint old fellow, and an enthusiastic angler. After the dedication of his volume to the Right Hon. Edward Lord Montague, he 38 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. writes of himself in the “ Author’s Epistle” (first edit.), as follows :— “Tam now grown old..... I have written no more but my own experience and practice..... If any noble or gentle angler, of what degree soever he be, have a mind to discourse of any of these wayes and experiments, I live in Henry the 7th’s Gifts, the next door to the Gatehouse in Westm. My name is Barker, where I shall be ready, as long as please God, to satisfie them, and maintain my art, during life, which is not like to be long.” Both of Barker’s books were reprinted by Burn (London) in 1820. That Walton knew and thought highly of Barker’s first book is seen from the following remark of Piscator on the Fourth Day :—“TI will tell you freely, I find Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that has spent much time and money in Angling, deal so judiciously and freely in a little book of his, Angling with a fly for Trout, that I will give you his directions without much variation.” This occurs in the first edition; but in subsequent editions Walton altered his text to “directions as were lately given to me by an ingenious brother of the Angle, an honest man, and a most excellent fly-fisher,”’ and as the list of flies then given is a verbatim copy of that given by Leonard Mascall, above mentioned, it would seem that he is the “excellent fly-fisher alluded to,” though there is some little difficulty as to dates. In 1652, Gervase Markham, who had before then published several works on country pursuits and sports, issued his Young Sportsman's Delight and Instructor in Angling, &c., a book with which, doubtless, Walton was familiar, as he also may be presumed to have been with other Angling Literature existing at his time; though I cannot help remarking that in his “Dedicatory Epistle” to John THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 39 Offley (first edit.), he observes that he “could never yet see in English” a treatise on Angling “worthy the perusal” of “the unlearned angler.” And now we come to the great Izaak himself. From what has been already said it is clear that the title of “Father of Angling,” so often applied to him, is hardly consistent with facts. He was neither the “Father of Angling,” as an angler himself, or as an author. “ Vixerunt multi ante Agamemnona.” At least some few notables in both respects; and Walton himself acknowledges in the “ Dedicatory Epistle” just quoted that “there be now many men of great wisdom, learning, and experience, which love and practise this Art.” At the same time, however, I am behind no one in my admiration of, and vene- ration for, the famous old master in piscatorial Israel. As a man, a Christian, and a gentleman, his character shines forth as a bright star in the troublous times in which he lived; as an angler he was doubtless far before all of his own time, and all who had gone before him, though with his rude tackle and comparative want of knowledge as a naturalist, he could not compete for a moment with scores of modern anglers and zoologists ; and as an author he. produced a book'which will ever live as one of the immortal classics of the English language. This is a trite theme; but how can any one essaying “Notes on Fish and Fishing” avoid it, or even wish to avoid it? The first edition of his book was published in 1653 A.D. It was advertised by the “ Enterprising Publisher,” as books are now in the “daily papers.” Thus the 40 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. announcement ran in The Perfect Diurnall : from Monday, May 9th, to Monday, May 16th, 1653 :— “The Compleat Angler, or the Contem- plative Man’s Recreation, being a dis- course of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers, of 18 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. printed for Richard Marriot, to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstan’s Churchyard, Fleet Street.” It was similarly advertised at the same time in the Mercurius Politicus. A fac-simile of this edition was produced in 1810; and I may mention for the benefit of some who are not aware of the fact, that another fac- simile of this first edition was published last year by Mr. Elliot Stock, of Paternoster Row, the very tint and texture of the antique paper being reproduced, with the small pages of fat type, with its long s’s, while the art of photography revives the title-page, the quaint head-pieces, the illuminated initials, and the “cuts” of fish. Perfect copies of the original edition are now worth about 251. to 802. The second edition, which appeared in 1655, was almost re-written by the author, and in it a third inter- ’ locutor Auceps, was introduced. Little alteration was made in the third and fourth editions; but the fifth was much augmented, some of the variations being exceedingly curious, and to it was added the Second Part on Trout and Grayling Fishing, written at Walton’s request by his friend, Charles Cotton, of Beresford. This edition is sometimes entitled The Universal Angler, and was the last published in Walton’s lifetime, the date being 1676, THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 41 Not long ago, at a public sale, these five editions, the copies being perfect, in good preservation and hand- somely bound, realized 1002. I may here remark that the word “ Compleat,’ which appears thus spelt on the illus- trated title-page of the first edition, is spelt “ Complete” on all the pages of the book itself, the “ Compleat”’ being probably a little bit of pedantry on the part of the engraver of the ‘ Dolphins.” The sixth edition, which did not appear till 1750, was edited by the Rev. Moses Browne, as was also the eighth in 1759, and the tenth in 1772. From these may be said to date something like a revival of Angling. In 1760 was published the well-known edition by Sir John Hawkins. The seventeenth edition is the next of any note, Sir Henry Ellis being the editor, in 1815. Other editions followed in quick succession, and in 1835 we have the notable edition by Sir Harris Nicolas, with the lives of Walton and Cotton, and illustrations by Stothard and Inskip. This has been since reprinted in more than one form, and in my opinion is the best of all, containing as it does in the notes the variations of all the early editions and much interesting matter. A special feature in this edition is the division of Walton’s Dialogues into “ Five Days,’’ which thus brings out the ‘‘ dramatic character ”’ of the work. In Walton’s first edition, though it is divided by the author into thirteen chapters, the dialogue evidently occupies five separate days, and “spaces” show where the conversation ends for the first four nights. Altogether there have been about sixty editions of Walton, reckoning those published on the Continent and in America. The books which can boast such a multitude 42 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. of editions can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. I cannot, however, help thinking that this constant multiplication of the Complete Angler is quite unneces- sary. It would be much more reasonable for the majority, at least, of those who feel inspired to write on angling to publish a book of their own, and not to take Walton as a mere text, for the purpose of correcting and overloading with notes. That reprints will be necessary from time to time may be taken for granted, for as far as one can judge, the Complete Angler is likely to remain a standard and popular work among English- speaking people as long as Shakespeare’s Plays, Bun- yan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, White’s Natural History of Sel- borne, Keble’s Christian Year, and, if the bathos of the transition be not too painful, Butter’s Spelling Book, i.e. unless the London School Board, by effecting a reform in spelling, causes the last-named work to become obsolete. The Complete Angler was well received by Walton’s contemporaries, with the exception, it would seem, of one Richard Franck, who published his Northern Memoirs in 1694, (though written, he says, in 1658,) with which is incorporated The Contemplative and Practical Angler, by way of Diversion. This is in the form of a dialogue, in which “ Arnoldus” thus speaks :— “ However Izaac Walton (late author of the Compleat Angler) has imposed upon the world this monthly novelty, which he understood not himself; but stuffs his books with morals from Dubravius and others, not giving us one precedent of his own practical experiments, except otherwise where he prefers the trencher before the trolling-rod ; who lays the stress of his arguments upon other men’s observations, wherewith he stuffs his indigested octavo; so brings himself under the angler’s censure, and the common calamity of a plagiary, to be THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 43 pitied (poor man) for his loss of time, in scribbling and transcribing other men’s notions, These are the drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees they bring them honey.” This is a hard hit; and it would appear that the author, who was also a practical angler and salmon fisherman, had on one occasion a personal argument on matters piscatorial with Walton. Sir Walter Scott, however, who, in 1821, published an edition of Franck with preface and notes, comes to Walton’s rescue, though he credits Franck with practical angling knowledge. He says,— “Probably no readers while they read the disparaging passages in which the venerable Izaac Walton is introduced, can forbear wishing that the good old man, who had so true an eye for Nature, so simple a taste for her most innocent pleasures, and withal, so sound a judg- ment, both concerning men and things, had made this northern tour instead of Franck ; and had detailed in the beautiful simplicity of his Arcadian language, his observations on the scenery and manners ot Scotland. Yet we must do our author the justice to state, that he is as much superior to the excellent patriarch Izaac Walton, in the mystery of fly-fishing, as inferior to him in taste, féeling, and common sense. Franck’s contests with salmon are painted to the life, and his directions to the angler are generally given with great judgment.” Byron, who had seldom a good word for any one, had his fling at old Izaac, when he says,— “ And angling, too, that solitary vice, Whatever Isaak Walton sings or says; The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.” And even a modern author on angling, who must at least be given credit for the courage of his opinions, says of the Complete Angler,— “T am free to confess I have derived neither pleasure nor profit. There is no doubt that in his day the worthy citizen was an excellent angler; he was also a simple-minded, kindly, prosy, and very vain old 44, NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. gentlewoman..... I would not whisper it at the “ Walton’s Head” or the “ Walton’s Arms,” or hint it at the “Jolly Anglers,” or the “Rest,” or any other resort of his so-called disciples, but to my readers I will impart my private conviction, that there is now at least little practically to be learnt from Izaak Walton’s Complete Angler, and that the reading of it is rather heavy work than otherwise.” I am also “ free to confess” that the practical angler now-a-days cannot learn much of the art of fishing from Walton; but I will not admit that Walton was a “ very vain old gentlewoman,”’ or that the reading of the Complete Angler is “rather heavy work than otherwise.” I dare to say that Shakespeare wrote no little twaddle, and made scores of jokes which would disgrace a modern schoolboy ; but I hold it rank heresy to say that the Complete Angler is “prosy.” There is such a thing as the deficiency of a reader being visited on the writer. Dr. Johnson, a pretty fair critic I suppose it will be admitted, but one whose name will ever be execrated by all anglers for his abo- minable observation about “a worm at one end of a line and a fool at the other,’”’ was one of the foremost admirers of the Complete Angler; and it was at his suggestion that the Rev. Moses Browne published his third edition of the Walton and Cotton (the 10th) in 1772. Another no mean judge of literary merit, Charles Lamb (and he too no lover of the angle) thus writes to Coleridge in October, 1796 :— “ Among all your quaint readings did you ever light upon Walton's Complete Angler? I asked you the question once before; it breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of heart; there are many choice old verses interspersed in it; it would sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read it; it would Christianize every discordant, angry passion : pray make yourself acquainted with it.” The panegyrics showered down on Walton’s book, after THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 45 the custom of ancient days, were for once well deserved, and are deserved even now in this more critical age. The Complete Angler is still one of the most perfect idylls, or pastorals, written in any age or country. It can never tire a sympathetic or even an unsympathetic reader. “ Age cannot wither ¢é, nor custom stale Its infinite variety.” It will ever be the true angler’s Vade Mecwm, though not in the literal sense it is to Mr. T. Westwood, the poet- angler, who thus sings its praises in his Lay of the Lea :— “ Now in noontide heat Here I take my seat; Izaak’s book beguiles the time—of Izaak’s book I say, Never dearer page Gladden’d youth or age, Never sweeter soul than his bless’d the merry May. For while I read, *Tis as if, indeed, Peace and joy and gentle thoughts from each line were welling ; As if earth and sky Took a tenderer dye, And as if within my heart fifty larks were trilling. Ne’er should angler stroll, Ledger, dap, or troll, Without Izaak in his pouch on the banks of Lea ;— Ne’er with worm or fly Trap the finny fry Without loving thoughts of him, and—Benedicite !” To the angler who has caught the spirit of his master, the “ pastoral” Lea is still “sacred to his memory ;”? and even at this long distance of time he seems to be wandering in his very footsteps along the meadows and beneath the 46 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. trees and honeysuckle hedges where the old man and his friends walked and took sweet counsel together, admirmg the wondrous and beautiful works of nature, and silently worshipping their Creator. Well has it been said that “ Walton long ago made angling a medium for inculcating the most fervent piety and the purest morality ;’’? and no one who has read his Complete Angler, his Lives of English Divines, and the memoirs of his life which have been handed down to us, especially that by Sir Harris Nicolas, can fail to see in him a man whom sweetness of nature, simplicity of manners, sound understanding, unswerving honesty, and religious integrity, combined with content- ment and peace of mind, raised to a high standard of per- fection in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. I am glad to hear that considerable progress has been made (though not so great as ought to have been the case) in raising subscriptions for erecting, in the parish church of Stafford, a stained glass window and marble bust to the memory of Izaac Walton. He was born in that town in 1593, and baptized in St. Mary’s Church; and the poor of Stafford to this day receive benefit from his charitable bequests. A flat stone, with the inscription, I believe, almost obliterated, marks his resting-place in Winchester Cathedral; and all who reverence his memory would do well both to see this restored and join in raising the memorial at Stafford. Mr. John Shallcross, the ex-mayor, would, I am sure, be happy to receive subscriptions from the scattered “ brethren of the angle” and all admirers of this goodold man. Ido hope that in this matter we shall not have to exclaim,— “Shame upon the rich-left heirs Who let their fathers be without a monument.” THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 47 An angler and author contemporaneous with Walton, worthy of mention, was Colonel Robert Venables, who in 1662, i. e. during the period in which Walton brought out the several editions of his work, as already mentioned, published his Hupertenced Angler; or Angling Improved, being a General Discourse of Angling. This is fair reading, and has gone through six editions, the last dating 1825. Venables was known to Walton, and doubtless they often “compared notes” together. In The Innocent Epicure, or Angling, a poem published in 1697, the author of which is unknown, the line— “ Hail, great Triumvirate of Angling! Hail!” refers to Walton, Cotton, and Venables. In 1675 the Accomplisht Lady’s Delight contained “Secrets in the Art of Angling,” but these were taken from Walton and Barker. William Gilbert was another author in Walton’s time. He published his Angler’s Delight, containing the whole art of neat and clean Angling, &c., in 1676, (the date of the fifth edition of the Complete Angler,) the work being dedicated to Sir Richard Fisher. He gives his readers “ the method of fishing in Hackney Marshes, and the names of the best stands there,” and bids them “ go to Mother Gilbert’s, at the Flower de Luce, at Clap- ton, near Hackney, and whilst you are drinking a pot of ale, bid the maid make you two or three pennyworth of ground bait and some paste (which they do very neatly and well).”” From him too we learn that barbel fre- quented London Bridge in his time. But as I have remarked in reference to the publication of Dame Juliana Berners’ treatise that it gave no stimulus to angling authorship, so I note in reference to Walton’s 48 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Complete Angler (i.e. its several editions including the fifth), that it seems to have had the effect of making anglers rather shy of trying their hands at authorship ; for during a period of a hundred years dating from the fifth edition of Walton, or, as I might put it, down to the end of the eighteenth century, but avery few works on angling of any value made their appearance, though Walton and Cotton during that period progressed to the fourteenth edition. As, however, I find myself, almost contrary to my original intention, involved in a History of the English Interature of Fishing, and writing it at a greater length and more systematically than I believe has yet been attempted, I may as well refer to some of the authors belonging to the period above named. In 1681 appeared Chetham’s Angler’s Vade Mecum— or a compendious yet full discourse of Angling.” In 1682 Nobbes published his Complete Toller, and has since enjoyed the title of the “ Father of Trolling,” though not altogether deserved. In 1694 Richard Franck had his tilt against Walton, as aforesaid. In 1696 we have the True Art of Angling, by J. 8., which reached its fifth edition in 1725; and in 1705 Secrets of Angling, by C.G. In 1706 Robert Howlett, “ forty years a practi- tioner in this art,” published his Angling Improved and Methodically Digested. In 1714 the Whole Art of Fishing boasted to be a Collection and Improvement of all that has been written on the subject, without being so. In 1717 and 1718 Giles Jacob discoursed, among other sporting matters, on Fish, Fishing, and Fishponds. In 1724 James Saunders pablished his Compleat Fisherman, which gives an account of “the diverse ways of Fishing now practised in Europe,” and is the first book on angling THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 49 in which silk-worm gut is mentioned. The “ Gentle- man Angler” in 1726 contained “ short plain instructions whereby the most ignorant beginner may, in a little time, become a perfect artist in Angling for Salmon, &c., d&c.,”’ (Oh, for the happy days when Salmo Salar, an uneducated beast, did not know “to a hair” or feather the orthodox lure to be artistically presented to him!) Brooks “wired in,” mostly as a plagiarist, ap. 1740; and in the same year The Complete Fisher, (with almost as many names at the back of the title recommending it as certain bills in Parliament recently have had of “‘ Home Rulers” who tried to dodge the ballot,) taught the “ Trwe Art of Angling,’ and by the way gave the names of “places round London for Angling” which afford a curious study now that more than another century has been unreeled. In 1746, or about this date, we have the best book of the period on Angling, Richard Boulker’s Art of Angling, improved in all its parts, especially Fly- fishing.” The Boulkers, who lived at Ludlow, were famous trout-fishers for generations. Charles published a second edition of his father’s book in 1774, and since then it has seen several republications, the last being as recent as 1829. The Angler’s Magazine (Bibliophilists and others whom it may concern, please find out who G. S. at the end of the preface may be, or may have been, or more simply was!) boasting itself a “Necessary and delightful Storehouse,’ and “ the completest Manual ever published on the subject,” hands on the torch in 1754. Fairfax in 1758 keeps it burning with his “Complete Sportsman, or Universal Angler ;” and after that, as far as I can make out, comes a complete lull, or nearly so, at least in the way of new E 50 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. authors entering on the field till nearly the end of the century, when in 1784 John Kirby published his Angler’s Museum, or the whole art of Float and Fly. I do not see this little but by no means uninteresting book mentioned in any of the “Catalogues.” The edition I have is the third. In 1786 the North Country Angler, a very read- able book, appeared, and in the year following, 1787, Mr. Thomas Best published his Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling. Since then it has reached at least the twelfth edition, for I see mine is of that issue and dated 1838. It isa fair little book enough; and that it is or rather was very popular is seen from the fact stated in the preface of the twelfth edition, that since its first publication upwards of twenty-five thousand had been sold. It must be remembered, however, that notwithstanding the literary barrenness of the period above mentioned several editions of what may be called the then “ standard” authors were issued at intervals. Here, though a little out of order, I cannot refrain from introducing as a “ Curiosity of Angling Literature” an extract from a sermon preached by St. Anthony of Padua (251 to 356 a.v.) as given in Addison’s Travels. When the heretics would not regard his preaching, he betook himself to the sea-shore, where the river Marecchia falls into the Adriatic, and there he called the fish together “ in the name of God, that they might hear His Holy Word.” They immediately appeared from sea and river in vast multitudes, and “ quickly arrayed themselves according to their several species into a very beautiful congregation.” At this miraculous display the good saint was so struck that he felt “a secret sweetness distilling upon his soul,” and thus addressed the assembled shoals :— THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 51 - My dearly beloved fish .... The goodness of the Divine Mane shines out on you more siiuantly than on any other created beings..... In you are seen the mighty mysteries of an infinite goodness. The holy Scripture has always made use of you as the types and shadows of some profound sacrament. Do you think that without a mystery, the first present that God Almighty made to man was of youP O ye fishes! do you think that without a mystery among all creatures and animals which were appointed for sacrifices, you only were excepted? O ye fishes! do you think that our Saviour Christ, that next to the Paschal Lamb, He took so much pleasure in the food of youP O you fishes! do you think it was mere chance, that when the. Redeemer of the world was to pay a tribute to Cesar, He thought fit to find it in the mouth of a fish? These are all of them so great mysteries and sacraments, that oblige you in a more particular manner to the praises of your Creator..... In what dreadful majesty, in what wonderful power, in what amazing providence did God Almighty distinguish you among all the species of creatures that perished in the universal Deluge! You only were insensible of the mischief that laid waste the whole world; all this, as I have already told you, ought to inspire you with gratitude and praise to the Divine Majesty that has done so great things for you, granted you such particular graces and privileges, and heaped upon you such distinguishing favours, and since all this you cannot employ your tongues with praises of your benefactor, and are not provided with words to express your gratitude; make at least some sign of reverence ; bow yourselves at His name ; give some show of gratitude ; according to the best of your capacities express your thanks in the most becoming manner you are able, and be not unmindful of all the benefits that He has bestowed on you.” The legend tells us that no sooner had he done preach- ing than the fish “bowed down their heads with all the marks of profound humility and devotion, moving their bodies up and down with a kind of fondness, as approving what had been spoken by the blessed Father ;” and adds that, after many heretics who were present. at the miracle were converted by it, the saint gave his benediction to the fishes and dismissed them. E 2 52 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. We now come to the opening of the present century. In 1800 we have Samuel Taylor’s Angling im all rts Branches, reduced to a complete Science. Daniel’s Rural Sports appeared in two vols., and in three vols. in 1801. The Kentish Angler, which may still be consulted with profit, was published in 1804, and in the same year Neil’s Complete Angler. The Angler’s Manual, which treats of every kind of angling, and “ particularly of the manage- ment of hand and rod in each method,” has 1808 for its date; and Robert Salter, in 1811, published his Modern Angler in a series of letters to a friend. The Angler’s Guide, by T. F. Salter (not to be confounded with Robert Salter), was first published in 1814, and may still be called a standard work, having reached nearly twelve editions. The Young Angler’s Guide is an abridgment of this book. G. C. Bainbridge’s Fly-fisher’s Guide, illustrated by coloured plates of about forty of the most useful flies, accurately copied from nature, first appeared in 1816, and has run through several editions. The Anglers Vade Mecum, by W. Carroll, is dated 1818. In 1820 Salter’s. Troller’s Guide made its appearance, and is still worth perusal. The year 1828 is marked by Sir Humphry Davy’s Salmonia, reviewed in the Quarterly by (probably) Sir Walter Scott, and in Blackwood by Professor Wilson ; a delightful work, in the form of conversations, and likely ever to remain as a chief favourite in the library of Angling Literature. Christopher North, also, in this year appears as anangling author, and an admirable one too, in Black- wood’s Magazine. Jesse’s Gleanings in Natural History, “with Maxims and Hints for an Angler,” first published in 1832, is another book which will always find a place on the angler’s shelves, The Driffield Angler, by Mackin- THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 53 tosh, has for its godparent an association called the “ Drittield Anglers,” formed by noblemen and gentlemen in 1888, for the preservation of the waters in that neigh- bourhood. Rennie’s Alphabet of Scientific Angling, 1833, I have already mentioned, with a few words of commenda- tion, in the last Note. It might almost be said that, in 1885, we come to another era—the modern era—of Angling Literature, as in that year we have the first edition of Thomas Stod- dart’s Art of Angling wm Scotland, which is still a very valuable little book to trout-fishers, though to some extent superseded by other and fuller works. Mr. Stod- dart also published several other angling works, which anglers should never fail to obtain when they have an opportunity. In 1839 T. C. Hofland, author, artist, and fisherman, dedicated the first edition of his British Angler’s Manual to Sir Francis Chantrey. This and subsequent editions are enriched with engravings and wood-cuts from pictures and drawings by the author himself and other artists; and I must confess that there are few books on my piscatorial shelves which I more thoroughly appre- ciate, written as it is in the spirit of a true angler and a true artist. South’s Fly-fisher’s Teat Book was pub- lished in 1845. In 1846 appeared the first of several piscatorial discourses—all well worth reading—which have issued under the nom de plume of “ Palmer: Hackle, Esquire,” and in 1847 Soltau’s’ Salmon and Trout Flies of Devon and Cornwall, §c., in which year also “‘ Hphemera’s” never-tiring pen produced the Hand- book of Angling. In 1849 Alfred Ronalds made a hit with his Fly-fisher’s Entomology. I believe I have given the date of the first edition correctly ; but several have o4 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. appeared since then, that in my possession being the seventh (1868). No one who aims at being a scientific fly-fisherman or fly-maker should be ignorant of the con- tents of this book, the excellently executed plates giving, with some trifling inaccuracies, a coloured representation of the natural fly, and of that to be produced artificially. The book is a great authority, especially for what may be called Midland Counties’ waters. In 1849, too, Wheatley published his Rod and Line, with plates of flies. Pulman’s Vade Mecum (I am quite tired of Vade Mecums) of Fly- jishing is entered among the “ Births” of 1851. Blacker, a first-rate angler and first-rate fishing-tackle-maker, but “ gone over to the majority,” published the Art of Fly- making, 5c., in (I believe) 1855. Let no fly-fisherman be without it, if he can get it. My edition, the second, of W. C. Stewart’s Practical Angler, or the Art of Trout-fish- ing, is dated 1857 ; and this again is one of the books with which every fly-fisher should be acquainted. The title- page adds, “ more particularly applied to clear water,” and with an eye to this the book should be carefully studied. Here I remark, by the way, the strong tendency about this period for Angling Literature to be busied most with jy-fishing. About this time, or soon after, we have Blakey’s Angler’s Guide, and Iam by no means disposed to run down this contribution to Angling Literature as some have done. I am inclined to hold the very chari- table doctrine, that in matters piscatorial there is some- thing or other to be learnt from almost every author. Wade’s Halcyon, or Rod-fishing, with Fly, Minnow, and Worm, with eight coloured plates and 117 specimens of natural and artificial flies, was published in 1861, and in the year following Jackson’s Practical Fly-jisher, more THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 50 particularly for Grayling or Umber, the second edition, I believe, coming out almost immediately after the first. A little book, published at South Molton, in Devonshire, in 1868, deserves special mention. Itis, The Art of Trout- fishing in Rapid Streams, in reference mainly to North Devon. It is, however, applicable more or less to rapid streams everywhere, and though rather wordy and “ re- petitional,” should be read by all who have the good fortune to get hold of a copy. I am now getting near a still more modern period. I may call it the “modern” modern ; and consequently, in mentioning authors, I should be getting on still more delicate ground than any I have yet trodden. I shall therefore content myself with saying, in reference to books on the Art of Angling, with all the necessary instructions both on fly-fishing (trout and salmon) and bottom-fishing, as well as trolling, that would-be anglers cannot do better, in the way of reading up a subject, than consult the various works of Mr. Francis Francis and Mr. H. Cholmondeley Pennell, gentlemen who have had a wide practical experi- ence in almost all the waters of the United Kingdom, and in every kind of fishing. They are both too as well skilled in the use of the pen as the rod. I would also mention the little but excellent Modern Angler, by “ Otter,” (Mr. Alfred, of Moorgate Street). Among recent works of a pastoral and idyllic character, combined with that of angling proper, I know none for really pleasant reading to be compared to Angling Idylls, by G. C. Davies, and Waterside Sketches, by W. Senior (“Red Spinner’’). Per- haps I should be well advised to mention in commendatory terms some other “‘ modern”? modern authors, as I know that more than one man of the angle is also a man of the 56 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. pen, as witnesses current literature; and it may chance that my “ Notes” may be handed to such an one for criti- cism; and I have noticed that angling authors, though they are credited and credit themselves with the utmost amount of amiability, are particularly “rough” on their fellows, when they come into literary contact. In the way of avery compendious guide to all waters within a “reasonable distance” of London, the angler cannot do better than consult The Rail and the Rod, by Greville F , the well-known piscatorial contributor to The Field, and accomplished fisherman, who has issued two very useful volumes, in which he tells us almost all that an angler can wish to know of rivers, lakes, &c., to be reached by the Great Western, Great Eastern, Great Northern, South-Western, London and North-Western, and Midland Railways, combined with a mass of most interesting local information of a general character. The Angler’s Diary, published annually, is also a little work of reference to “ Angling Stations” for the pocket, which may be profitably consulted. But before concluding this part of my subject I must mention a work of a perfectly unique character, published last year by Mr. J. B. Day, of Savoy Street, Strand. It was edited by Mr. W. H. Aldam, at the request of many mem- bers of the Derwent Fly-fishing Club, and the text is a print from an old MS. never before published, written about a century ago by an old man well known as a first-rate fly- fisher in Derbyshire. It is a quaint treatise on Flees and the Art of Artyfichall Plee Making, and printed in rare old large type with spacious margin. But the unique feature of the publication is the introduction of thick cardboard leaves, containing in sunk pannels pattern flies and the materials THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 57 for making them. Each compartment has the pattern fly made in the best style, and accompanying it the feathers, hackle, silk hair and twist, each separately and securely fastened down, which are necessary for its exact manu- facture. Altogether there are twenty-two flies thus given, all “killers” in the present day; and I would add that all interested in the art of fly-making should endea- vour to get a glimpse of this book. The price, three guineas, is prohibitive to “poor” anglers, but it is well worth the money, if only as a work of art. I fear, how- ever, that copies of the book are very scarce. I have never seen but one. I shall now introduce a paragraph or two on the “ Poetical Literature of Angling,’”’ preferring to deal with it separately than to mingle the authors connected with it with those who have confined their labours to prose. Among the ancients we learn that Numenius of Heraclea, Cecius of Argos, Posidonius of Corinth, Leonides of Byzantium, Pancratias the Arcadian, and Seleucus of Tarsus were piscatory poets, but unfortunately their writ- ings have been lost, and so we are reduced to Oppian, whose Halieutics I have referred to at the beginning of these remarks. The first poem we have in English on Angling is that entitled, The Secrets of Angling: Teaching the choicest Tooles, Baytes, and Seasons, for the taking of any Fish, in Pond or River :—practised and familiarly opened in three Bookes. By I. D., Esquire. This was printed and pub- lished in London by Roger Jackson in 1613, and “ Sould at his shop nere Fleete Streete Conduit.” One of the very few copies of this book (i.e. the first edition) is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and on the title-page is a 58 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. wood-cut representing two men, one treading on a serpent, and with a sphere at the end of his line, while over his rod, on a label, is the inscription,— “ Hold, hooke and line, Then all is mine ;” the other with a fish on his hook, and the following label :— “ Well fayre the pleasure That brings such treasure.” There have from time to time been long discussions as to who I. D. was. Isaac Walton, in his “ First Day,” quotes six stanzas of the poem, and in his Ist, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions ascribes it to “ Jo. Da.” In his 5th edition, how- ever, he calls the author “Jo. Davors, Esq.” Robert Howlett, in his Angler’s Sure Guide (1706), attributes it to Dr. Donne, while several poets of the name of “ Davies” have had the credit of it also. The question, however, has been set at rest by the discovery that in 1612 the book was ‘‘entered at Stationers’ Hall” as “by John Dennys, Esquire,” this gentleman being a younger son of Sir Walter Dennys of Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, in the church of which parish the angler poet lies buried. The mistake as to the authorship may probably have arisen in some way from the circumstance that to the poem are prefixed some commendatory lines, signed “ Jo. Daves.” The poem itself is certainly of a high class, containing much point, elevation of thought, and sweetness, and subtlety of rhythm, as well of subtlety of diction in handling what in itself may be considered a prosaic sub- ject, when mere instructions in the art of angling are being attempted in verse. The quotation introduced by Walton begins with the well-known couplet,— THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 59 “ Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place.” This he has slightly altered from the original, which stands thus :— “O let me rather on the pleasant brinke Of Tyne and Trent possesse some dwelling-place.” There are several other mere verbal alterations in the six stanzas quoted; but it is curious to notice that in the first stanza Walton has altered Dennys’s— “While they proud Thais’ painted sheet embrace, And with the fume of strong tobacco’s smoke, All quaffing round, are ready for to choke,” into— “While some men strive ill-gotten goods t’ embrace, And others spend their time in base excess Of wine or worse, in war or wantonness.” But old Izaak, like the majority of “ good” anglers, was fond of his pipe, and could not brook the implied libel on tobacco. Dennys’s concluding lines are worth quoting. They have a soft cadence about them :— * And now we are arrived at the last, In wish’d harbour where we mean to rest ; And make an end of this our journey past; Here then in quiet roade I think it best We strike our sailes and stedfast anchor cast, ~ For now the Sunne low setteth in the West.” In 1631 Fletcher’s Sicelides, a Piscatory, as it hath been acted in King’s College, was published; and the author again broke out in Piscatorie Heloys two years afterwards, which Eclogs, (spelt Hclogues,) seem to have been edited in 1771 by Lord Woodhouslee. The Innocent Epicure, or Art of Angling, a Poem, sometimes attributed to N. Tate, 60 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. but probably the work of J. S., already mentioned as the author of the True Art of Angling (1696), appeared in 1697, but owing mainly to its artificiality cannot be com- pared to the poem of J. Dennys. The last piscatorial poet of the 17th century was John Whitney, who published in 1700 his Genteel Recreation ; or the Pleasures of Angling, a Poem, with a dialogue between Piscator and Corydon. In 1726 we have a translation of Sannazarius’s Piscatory Eclogues ; and to Moses Brown we are indebted for a further batch of Piscatory Eelogues in 1729. Ford’s Piseatio, a poem originally written in Latin, appeared in 1733, after which date the piscatory poets seem to cease to sing till 1758, when The Anglers, Hight Dialogues in Verse, the work of Scott of Ipswich, did not contribute much to the exaltation of the theme, though not without a certain amount of cleverness and humour. Light Dialogues in Verse in 1773 are no improvement on the last. Clifford’s Anglers, a Didactic poem, in 1804, is but poor; nor in 1808 does T. F. 8. give Hints to Anglers in verse so well as he does in prose a few years later in his Angler’s Guide, already mentioned, if so be that T. F. 8S. is the T. F. Salter, gent., of Clapton, author of that work. An officer of the Royal Navy, T. W. Charleton, takes to fresh water in 1819, and gives us a poetical description of the Art of Fishing. The Angler’s Progress, by H. Boaz, written, it is said, in 1789, and very scarce, was published in 1820. It professes to “develope the pleasures the angler receives from the dawn of the propensity in infancy till the period of his becoming a Complete Angler ;” but though curious enough in its way, and very fairly illustrated for the time with twelve wood-cuts, the seven short pages comprise little more than a rhyme for THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 61 children. I notice in my copy an advertisement of The Angler: a Poem in Ten Cantos with Notes, &c., by T. P. Lathy. This, it appears, was published in the same year, and is remarkable as being a cool dishing-up, without acknowledgment, of The Anglers, Hight Dialogues in Verse (1758), just mentioned. And the best, or rather the worst, of the joke'was that Lathy got 301. for his MS. from an “enterprising publisher,” who spent a large sum in getting up the book in an expensive style before the swindle was discovered. When the fraud was ascertained “ Piscator ” was substituted for T. P. Lathy. The Newcastle Fishers’ Garlands are a series of Songs or Poems chiefly in praise of the Coquet, and emanated from the Waltonian Club established there about the year 1821-22. The custom seems to have been to publish a “Garland” annually, the first of which appeared in 1821 in form of a single-sheet broadside. It commences, “ Auld nature now revivéd seems,” and was the joint production of Robert Roxby and Thomas Doubleday, who were also the authors of most of the single “ Garlands”’ to the year 1832, when the series terminated. They were published in a collected form in the year 1836, with Boaz’s Angler’s Progress, mentioned on the previous page, prefixed to them as the Garland for 1820. In 1842 an attempt was made to revive the series, but it failed after two or three years. However, in the year just named the original publishers of the “ Garlands” brought out A Collection of Right Merrie Garlands for North Country Anglers, adding to the original a miscellaneous collection of songs, Doubleday again being a contributor. Thé best of the Roxby and Doubleday “ Garlands” were republished in the Coquet- dale Fishing Songs in 1852, and in 1864 Mr, Joseph 62 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Crawhall again reproduced the Collection of Right Merrie Garlands, §c., with songs and poems added mainly by himself and Doubleday, 'T. Westwood being also a contri- butor, and styled them by the old title of the Newcastle Fishers’ Garlands, assigning one, and sometimes two, to each year to 1864 inclusive. Thus we have what the Devonshire folk would call “a Mixed Medley,” and the Doubleday and Roxby strike some sympathetic cords, and Mr. Westwood is no mean poet. It may be a question whether the original or the “ interpolated ”” Garlands have anything like sufficient merit in them to justify the pre- tentious form they have assumed in Mr. Crawhall’s volume—and far less in a larger and more expensive edition, for which only two guineas were asked per copy. In Professor Wilson’s collected poems, published in 1825, will be found a very pretty piece, entitled “The Angler’s Tent.” Mr. Blakey published his Anglers Song Book in 1855, containing nearly 250 songs of various degrees of merit, and some of no merit at all, scraps and snatches of all kinds and descriptions, ranging from John Dennys down to Wordsworth. The collection as a whole is not one of which anglers can feel very proud. Several anonymous writers also in the current literature of the day during the last fifty years have with varied success contributed to the stock-in-trade of piscatory poetry. Among our standard poets, though not strictly speak- ing piscatory poets, several have dwelt more or less on angling, and shown that they were admirers of the “gentle art ” and its surroundings, if not actual professors ofit. Ishall not press Shakspeare into the service, though THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 63 a friend of mine is engaged on a discourse in which he will endeavour to show from his writings that “the im- mortal bard ”’ was an angler, just as others have elaborated Shakspeare “as a divine,’ “as a lawyer,” “as a phy- sician,” and as everything else. But Pope, Thomson, and Gay may certainly be claimed as having well sung the praises of “ Fish and Fishing,” or at least of having thrown a poetic halo round the Art of Angling. Here.I shall venture to insert, as a curiosity of the Poetical Literature of Angling, a “ piscatorial puff” issued some years ago in the form of a handbill by a fish- ing-tackle-maker in Hungerford Market. It was headed The Skeleton Angler, and in the last edition revised by himself it thus runs :— “When the old clock in yon grey tower Proclaims the deep, still midnight hour, And ominous birds are on the wing, I rise from the realms of the bony king. My bonny elm coffin I shoulder and take To fish in the blood-red phantom lake, Where many a brace of spectral trout For ever frisk, dart, and frolic about ; Then the hyzna’s ravening voice Gladdens and makes my heart rejoice. The glow-worm and the death’s-head moth Are killing baits on the crimson froth. For work-bench I’ve the sculptured tomb, Where tackle I form by the silent moon; Of churchyard yew my rods I make ; Worms from the putrid corpse I take ; Lines I plait from the golden hair Pluck’d from the head of a damsel fair ; Floats of the mournful cypress tree I carve while night-winds whistle free ; My plummets are moulded of coffin-lead ; For paste I seize the parish bread ; 64 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. The screech-owl’s or raven’s wing For making flies are just the thing. Should thunder roll, from the barren shore I bob for eels in the crimson gore ; A human skull is my live-bait can ; My ground-bait the crumbling bones of man ; My lusty old coffin for punt I take To angle by night in the phantom lake. While Dante’s wing’d demons are hovering o’er The skeleton trout of the crimson gore, To the blood-red phantom lake I go, While vampyre-bats flit to and fro. ScENE THE SEconD.—(Sunrise.) The owl is at roost in his ivy’d bower, The bat hangs up in the old church-tower, The raven’s head is beneath his wing, The skeleton sleeps with the bony king, The fierce hyzna has left the grave To seek repose in his darksome cave. The author of this piscatorial treat Is the far-famed E. Davis, of King William Street ; Twenty-one is the number o’erlooking the Strand ; His prices are lowest of all in the land.” Before Mr. Davis moved into King William Street, in consequence of the demolition of that delightful old lounge for “fishy”’ people, Hungerford Market, the puff ended,— “ The author of this—take pencil and mark it— Is the far-famed E. Davis, of Hungerford Market.” Mr. Davis now carries on his business in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and recently showed me some ghastly illustrations of the above lines, in which, if he will allow me to say so, he has evidenced, at least in my opinion, no little poetical imagination. Asakind of cross between prose and poetry I may here mention Moule’s Heraldry of Fish, Notices of the THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 65 Principal Families bearing Fish on their Arms. It was published in 1842, but is now seldom to be met with. In the course of my notes on different fish I shall mention several which have found their way into Heraldry. I notice that clergymen are numerous among angling authors, as indeed might be expected of “fishers of men,” who are also fishers of fish, and have a taste for handling the pen as well as the rod. The fox-hunting parson is almost a being of the past, though a celebrity or two still linger in the remote West, and the shooting parson is an object of suspicion in these correct times ; but “a little quiet angling ”’ is freely accorded on all sides “to the cloth.” I have already mentioned Dr. Gardiner’s book of 1606 a.v. The Rev. Phineas Flet- cher, Rector of Hilgay, Norfolk, indulged in piscatory poetry afew years later. Robert Nobbes, the author of the Complete Troller in 1682, already alluded to, was Vicar of Apethorp and Wood Newton, in Northampton- shire. The Rev. Moses Browne was another “ poet of the angle,” 1729, and an editor of Walton and Cotton, 1750. Dr. Ford another poet in 1733. The Rev. Charles Marshall, Vicar of Brixworth, added Hints on Fish and Fishponds to his Gardening in 1796. In the Rev. W. B. Daniels’ Rural Sports, first published in 1802, fishing occupies a considerable space: and as Scott (Dr.), the author of The Anglers, Hight Dialoques in Verse in 1758, was a “ Dissenting minister,”’ he also is a “ Reverend,” according to a recent legal decision. Among the moderns, to mention but one, the Rev. Henry New- land, late Vicar of St. Mary Church, Devon, one of the leaders of the High Church revival of the present century, and a devoted angler, has given us one of the most readable F 66 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. books I know, The Erne, its Legends and its Fly-fishing: while also among the “ Reverends” is Dr. Badham, the author of Prose Halieutics, or Ancient and Modern Fish Tattle, which contains vast stores of piscatorial as well as ichthyological chit-chat of the most interesting character. I might almost add that old Izaac Walton himself was more than half a divine. Icannot say that I am altogether satisfied with the existing Literature of Fishing ; I mean with that dating before (say) the last fifty years. Twaddle and repetition reign supreme in many of the older works, which are full too of all kinds of exaggerations and misstatements on matters of natural history. Of course we must not be too hard on old authors in reference to this last matter, as the light they had was but a feeble one, and their powers and means of observation were very limited. Of what I may call the angling books of the “ Middle Age” many are mere plagiarisms, and but few contribute in any very appreciable degree to the stock of angling knowledge. As regards the poetical literature of angling, it would be mere affectation to say much in its praise. A vast quantity of it is mere doggerel, while affectation and “ stiltiness ” is another predominating feature. Old John Dennys is still far ahead of those who have sought in- spiration from the Muses on this really poetic subject ; and thus a field is still open for poets to win fame in singing the praises of angling. I would, however, recommend anglers not only to read, but to buy any of the old and “ Middle-age ” books Ihave mentioned, and indeed any old and “ Middle-age” books on angling, for, in the first place, there is a very great deal in THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 67 them to amuse, always something to instruct, and they will always fetch their money again, as there is a great demand for old and indeed all angling literature. If any one in search of old angling books expends a day in “drawing” second-hand book-shops and old stalls, he will be surprised at the scarcity of the literature he is in quest of. I have already said all I care to say of modern authors. It is from these that young anglers will mainly learn all that can be learnt of angling, i.e. from books. Izaak Walton, in his “ Epistle to the Reader ” (second edition), thus cautions,— “Now for the art of catching fish, that is to say how to make a man that was none to be an angler by a book; he that undertakes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, that in a printed book, called The Private School of Defence, undertook to teach the art of fencing, and was laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things might be observed out of that book; but that the art was not to be taught by words; nor is the art of angling.” These remarks hold good now. Young anglers, and old ones too, who are not above learning, if they wish to become proficient in their art, would always do well to “ take lessons” from experienced hands. For all kinds of bottom-fishing the professional Thames puntsmen and the Nottingham fishermen are good instructors, while learners must look further afield for tutors in fly-fishing for trout and salmon. But after all, few anglers, or would-be anglers, are so friendless but that they have some one who would take as much pleasure in teaching and illustrating the art by the water-side as they themselves would in learning it. A word or two as to the illustrations and “ cnts” of FQ 68 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. fish in books on angling. Ineed hardly say that we must not look to the old books for any great excellence in this respect. The cuts in Walton’s first edition are better perhaps than we might have expected, but the heads of all the fish are fearfully and wonderfully made, while their fins are painfully ragged and “jagged.” The best illustrations I know of in any angling book are those in Hofland’s Angler’s Manual, almost all the wood-cuts being from pictures of fish painted by himself. Though a fish is very simple in outline, it is seldom that it ‘‘comes out” naturally on paper, and I have seen but few good coloured engravings. The attempts in this latter line in the Fisher- man’s Magazine (which perhaps I ought to have men- tioned was published in monthly numbers during the years 1864 and 1865, and was a most interesting piscatorial jour- nal), though no trouble or expense was spared to produce exact copies of nature, can hardly be considered a success even in the majority of instances; while an ambitious artist in Ronald’s Fly-fisher’s Entomology has given us a trout and grayling in which the vivid colouring has gone very far beyond that which the most brilliant of their tribe ever exhibited. Mr. Rolfe, of Nicholas Lane in the City, can paint a fish to nature, and has well earned for himself the title of ‘‘ The Landseer of Fishes ;”’ but we still need great improvement in the various arts applicable to the illustra- tion of books on angling. To those who would wish to make a longer excursus into the “ Literature of Fishing,” I would give the advice first, to procure some of the published Catalogues of books on angling. Of course the British Museum Cata- logue is to be consulted. I notice in my edition of Boaz’s Angler's Progress (1820), that there is an advertisement of THE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 69 a work “ preparing for the Press,” entitled, 4 Bibliogra- phical List of all the books written either for the improve- ment in, or that are descriptive of, the Art of Angling, I suppose this was published, but I have never seen it. As an Appendix to Piscatorial Reminiscences, a book of little value in itself, published in 1835, is a very inte- resting Catalogue of Works on Angling, “more extensive than any hitherto published,’ formed upon Sir Henry Ellis’s corrected copy of the list which he contributed to the British Bibliographer in 1811. Mr. T. Westwood pub- lished his Catalogue in 1861, entitled, 4 New Bibliotheca Piscatoria. It is very scarce, and a new edition with addenda would be very welcome. Then, again, there is J.R. Smith’s Bibliographical Catalogue of English Writers on Angling and Ichthyology, published in 1856. ‘The most important of recent contributions in this direction is the Bibliotheca Ichthyologia et Piscatoria, by D. Mulder Ros- goed (Haarlem), the Librarian of the Rotterdam Library. It is a most comprehensive work, containing as it does separate catalogues of books in all languages, on Angling, Ichthyology, Pisciculture, Fisheries, and Legis- lation on Fisheries. Those interested in this subject would also do well to obtain, from time to time, the catalogues of Mr. W. Miller, of 6, Stanley Road, Kingsland. He has been known for upwards of fifty years in the trade as a dealer almost exclusively in books on angling. Not many years ago he published a catalogue announcing that he had for sale nearly 500 different volumes. The old gentleman is not only a Bibliopolist, but a Bibliophilist, and an angler of the old school, who can show many a record of his deeds in other days. I shall always entertain most pleasant 70 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. reminiscences of a visit I recently paid him, and of the couple of hours I spent in his little room, lined on all four sides, from floor to ceiling, with the “ Literature of Fishing ” and piscatorial curiosities. There are in existence something like 600 books on angling, and as these are for the most part English, I have not thought it worth while to refer to foreign authors. But though in our own “ Literature of Fishing,” books of all kinds are so numerous, yet the cry is “still they come ”’—and Welcome! My last remark is in the way of a suggestion. It is to the effect that though the Field and Land and Water (in the great ocean of which latter the Fisherman’s Magazine “lost itself” at the close of the year 1865) and the Country, always contain much pleasant and instructive piscatorial reading, some Angler’s Organ, more or less of an exclusive character, is wanted as a medium for com- munication between fishermen, and as current record of miscellaneous matters connected with Fish and Fishing. Norsz.—Since the above was put into type The Fishing Gazette—a weekly—has made its appearance. As it has paid me the compliment of reprinting verbatim several long articles of mine, without a word of acknowledgment of the source from which they were taken, how can I do otherwise than wish it success P ! FISHING AS A SPORT. 71 NOTE III. FISHING AS A SPORT. “ Come, then, harmless Recreation, Holding out the Angler's Reed ; Nurse of pleasing Contemplation, By the stream thy wand'rings lead.” The Anglers. “An honest sport that is without debate.’—Joun Dznnys. Angling in England and other countries—Angling compared with hunting and shooting—Enthusiasm of anglers—Rationale of angling —HEffect of field-sports on character—Character of anglers in Izaak Walton’s time and afterwards—Modern anglers—London anglers— Metropolitan angling clubs—Angling contests—Anglers lovers of nature— Devout” anglers—The virtues of anglers—Angling best recreation for “ brain-workers “—Lady anglers. Ir may be taken for granted that centuries before Anthony and Cleopatra amused themselves with angling, fishing was regarded by many persons as a sport, and not only as a means of capturing certain of the fere nature with an eye to the “pot.” But m no country under the sun has fishing, as a sport, ever attained the popularity it enjoys at the present time in the British Isles. We are pre-emi- nently an angling nation, more so now than ever we were, for I estimate that, in proportion to the increase of popu- lation, the number of anglers has increased by five hun- dred to a thousand per cent. during the last quarter of a 72 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. century. There are anglers and angling clubs in Paris and its neighbourhood, and elsewhere in France. There are some hundreds of enthusiastic fishermen for small fry in Belgium, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, and even Spain; while in the United States the formation of angling societies, and the increasing interest taken in piscatorial matters, show that angling will, ere long, be- come one of the most popular pastimes on the other side of the “herring-pond.” But we are still far ahead of all others in our love of angling as a sport, and are still the only veritable pécheurs & la ligne. Inheriting a taste for the angle from our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, we have cul- tivated it till angling has become one of the most popular of our pastimes and recreations; and the peoples of other countries in this, as in many other matters of sport, are gradually following our example, and paying us the compliment of adopting the English methods of angling with float, spinning bait, and fly. An English- man whipping a continental stream is now no longer in danger of being hauled before the local authorities on the charge of having “ dealings with the devil,’ as was once a fellow-countrymen (if tradition speaks truly) at Heidel- berg, because an alarmed populace were eye-witnesses to the fact that he caught fish in the Neckar “ without bait- ing his hook,’’ the crass “ Fatherlanders” being innocent of the use of the artificial fly. In having thus become “a nation of anglers,” we give evidence of our civilization, for angling for mere sport’s sake is a mark of civilization, which several other pastimes can hardly be said to be; for instance, as Lacépéde says, “ Il y a cette difference entre la chasse et la péche, que cette derniére convient aux peuples les plus civilisés,”’ FISHING AS A SPORT. 73 So numerous a body have anglers become in this country of late years, that they no longer fear the jeers and scoffs which used to be levelled at their amusement ; and the cynical are almost afraid to pretend to pity them. But even now there are some found who question whether there is any real sport in fishing as compared, for instance, with hunting and shooting. The simplest answer to such persons is the fact that thousands do find sport, and that too of the most exciting and pleasurable kind, in its pursuit. Because one person or another “can see nothing in it,” and the pastime is capable of being described in a Indi- crous manner, it does not follow that it is a poor sport. Some persons can see nothing in shooting, others in hunting; and certainly if any sport or pastime is capable of being turned into ridicule it is modern hunting, in which some twenty to thirty couple of savage hounds, accompanied by hundreds of horsemen, go forth to effect the capture of a poor little animal like the fox, or still more feeble and timid hare, when either might be easily shot, trapped, or snared? But the truth is that, to a great extent, it is unreasonable to compare one sport with another, for instance, hunting or shooting with fish- ing, with a view to special exaltation or depreciation. The whole thing is a question de’ gustibus ; and further- more, there is no reason why a man may not derive intense pleasure in the pursuit of all the three field sports most popular in this country. Indeed I know many men who are equally enthusiastic as to all these pastimes, and follow each with equal zeal and enjoyment, as time and opportunity give facilities for one or the other. Each has its features, and each supplies its votary for the time being with the amusement and enjoyment he v4 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. is in search of. The bold, impetuous rider is by no means disqualified from beating his turnips and stubbles as a plodding, careful shot; or a sportsman who is either the former or the latter, or both, from being a patient, “ con- templative ” angler. Still, if I were asked, “ Which of the three sports creates the most enthusiasm ?”’ I should say at once angling ; and, “Which yields the keenest sensation of pleasure?” Ishould undoubtedly give the same answer. The hooking, play- ing, and eventual landing of a big fish is facile princeps the most intense sporting excitement we are capable of. Our first partridge, our first brush (or even the first kiss “at love’s beginning,” as Campbell has it), are as nothing compared to our first salmon or our first big trout, while for ever afterwards a big bag, or “the run of the sea- son,” are not painted in the memory with such unfading colours as a memorable take of fish. The fact that a dis- appointment in losing a good fish is one of the greatest of sporting trials, makes success all the more pleasurable. In Foster’s recent life of Swift we find that the Dean, in a letter to Pope, wrote thus: “I remember, when I was a little boy, I felt a great fish at the end of my line, which I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropped in, and the disappointment vexes me to this very day.” So intense are the emotions which fishing excites. And as the angler is the most enthusiastic of sports- men, so do none persevere with it so long. The well- known picture of the old gouty fisherman in his night-cap and dressing-gown, and one foot on a rest, indulging in his favourite sport in a tub which had been brought up to his bedroom, is but a little exaggeration of his animus. There is a good story told of an old courser on his death- FISHING AS A SPORT. 70 bed beckoning his eldest son to him, and whispering low in his ear, “ Jack, always look for a hare on an oat arish directly after harvest.’ Here was the “ruling passion strong in death; and for some time I looked on an old courser as more wedded to his sport than any other man; but Iam now sure he cannot be compared with the old angler. The shooting-man and hunting-man come at last to contemplate their “last”? season, and deliberately withdraw from their sport ; but hardly ever so the angler ; and herein consists a special advantage in angling, for in some form or other it may be pursued as an amusement to the very end of life. If Cicero were writing now De Senectute, he would certainly mention angling as among the pleasures and privileges of old age. I have already quoted in my second Note a passage from Dame Juliana Berners, in which the worthy prioress up- holds fishing as the best of sports. I cannot resist quoting one from old Burton, who, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, I have a shrewd idea, is a much greater plagiarist than is generally supposed. He says (evidently with the passage from the Book of St. Alban’s in his mind, and perhaps eye) ,— “ «Wishing is a kinde of hunting by water, be it with nets, weeles, baits, angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much pleasure to some men, as dogs, or hawks, when they draw their fish upon the bank,’ saith Nic. Henselius, Silesiographia, cap. 3, speaking of that extraordinary delight his countrymen took in fishing and making of pooles. James Dubravius, that Moravian, in his book De Pise., telleth, how travelling by the highway-side in Silesia, he found a nobleman booted up to the groins, wading himself, pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman of them all: and when some pbelike objected to him the baseness of his office, he excused himself, that if other men might hunt hares, why should not he hunt carpes ? Many gentlemen in like sort, with us, will wade up to the armholes, 76 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. upon such occasions, and voluntarily undertake that to satisfie their pleasure, which a poor man for a good stipend would scarce be hired to undergo. Plutarch, in his book De Soler. Animal., speaks against all fishing, as a filthy, base, illiberall imployment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor worth the labour. But he that shall consider the variety of baits, for all seasons, and pretty devices which our anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false flies, severall sleights, &c., will say, that it deserves like commendation, requires as much study and perspicacity as the rest, and is to be preferred before many of them ; because hawking and hunting are very laborious, much riding, and many dangers accompany them; but this is still and quiet; and if so be the angler catch no fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the brook side, pleasant shade, by the sweet silver streams; he hath good air, and sweet smels of fine fresh meadow flowers; he hears the melodious harmony of birds; he sees the swans, herns, ducks, water hens, cootes, &., and many other fowle with their brood, which he thinketh better than the noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all the sport that they can make.” Man has an innate desire to capture alive or dead the jfere nature. The chief source, however, of the pleasure of success in sport among civilized men is the conscious- ness that human skill and perseverance has proved su- perior to the instinct and various powers of the animal. Even the untutored savage has some idea of hunting as a sport, apart from its being a means of subsistence, and his pleasurable anticipation of the “happy hunting-grounds”’ consists, I take it, in the assurance that he will not only always have wherewithal to satisfy his hunger, but that his time will be always delightfully employed. A child catches flies, not, I think, from any innate cruelty, but from an instinct of sport. The fact that success in angling is mainly the result of skill, should give it high rank among our field pastimes. A great deal of nonsense has been written as to the brutalizing effects of field-sports. Doubtless some years FISHING AS A SPORT. we ago many sportsmen were brutal, as indeed some are now ; but these were the product of a brutal age, and were not made brutal by their sports. However much we may smile at the expression ‘‘sweetness and light,” there is certainly a great deal more of these commodities now than there was fifty or even twenty-five years ago. “Squire Western ’’ is now ananachronism. Many of the most refined scholars, earnest philanthropists, and cultured gentlemen among us are sportsmen in some line or other, not a few in that of angling. It may be true, as Sydney Smith said, that an English country gentleman was assailed directly after breakfast with a desire to “go out and kill something ;” and it may be admitted he is still so assailed; but the spirit in which he “kills” is a sufficient defence, if any were needed, of the “ desire.” We know the kind of man Walton was, and we learn from him the kind of men his contemporaries were, who belonged to the “gentle”? army of anglers. There was William Perkins, “a learned divine, and a pious and painful preacher,” of whom Walton says that he “bestowed commendation on angling.’ I notice, by the way, that of Perkins, Sir John Hawkins, in a note to his edition of Walton (1760), remarks that he had lost the use of his right hand, and that therefore Walton used “ extreme caution ”’ in speaking of him as he could “ hardly be supposed capable of baiting his hook.” It is possible that this was the case; but I may mention that John Keene, one of the Staines professional fishermen, has long been without one of his arms, and yet, of my personal experience, can shove a punt, fix his ripecks, put a worm or other bait on a hook in the most artistic manner, fish 78 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. in every style, and make tackle with his solitary hand. Then again there was Dr. Whitaker, the Regius Pro- fessor of Divinity at Cambridge, “a dear lover and great practiser,” as Walton says, of angling. Another historical angler of Walton’s. time was Dr. Alexander Nowel, spoken of by Walton as a man “noted for his meek spirit, deep learning, prudence, and piety,” and as “a dear lover and constant practiser of angling as any age can produce.” What further Walton says of him is worth quoting in his own words :— “ His custom was to spend besides his fixed hours of prayer, those hours which, by command of the Church, were enjoined the clergy, and voluntarily dedicated to devotion by many primitive Christians, I say, besides those hours, this good man was observed to spend a tenth part of his time in Angling; and, also, for I have conversed with those which have conversed with him, to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught, saying often, ‘that charity gave life to religion :’ and at his return to his house, would praise God he had spent that day free from worldly trouble; both harmlessly and in recreation that became a Churchman. And this good man was well content, if not desirous, that posterity should know he was an Angler; as may appear by his picture, now to be seen and care- fully kept, in Brazen-nose College, to which he was a liberal bene- factor. In which picture he is drawn leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him; and on one hand of him, his lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round; and on his other hand are his Angle-rods of several sorts; and by them this is written, ‘that he died 13 Feb., 1601, being aged ninety-five years, forty-four of which he had been Dean of St. Paul’s Church ; and that his age neither impaired his hear- ing, nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his memory, nor made any of the faculties of his mind weak or useless. It is said that Angling and temperance were great causes of these blessings; and I wish the like to all that imitate him, and love the memory of so good a man.” By the way, the remark of Walton that Dean Nowel “made that good, plain, unperplexed Catechism which is FISHING AS A SPORT. 79 printed with our good old service-book,” is not correct. Nowel drew up two admirable catechisms, the “ greater ”” and the “less,” which were allowed and received by the Church in the reign of Elizabeth, and of one of which Whitgift says, “I know no man so well learned, but it may become him to read and study that learned and ne- cessary book.” But the Catechism as it now stands in the Prayer Book was not the work of the cld and reverend angler, Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton College, was ano- ther of Walton’s contemporaries, and an intimate friend ; an ardent fisherman, who discoursed well in prose and verse on the art. Thus again Walton of this worthy,— “This man, whose very approbation of Angling were sufficient to convince any modest censurer of it, this man was also, a most dear lover, and a frequent practiser of the art of Angling; of which he would say, ‘it was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent ;’ for Angling was, after tedious study, ‘a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, « diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness; and that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it.’ Indeed, my friend, you will find Angling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other blessings attending upon it.” Long after he was seventy years of age did Wotton sit quietly on a summer’s evening, on a bank a-fishing,” and sang the praises of the angle. Then again there was Dr. Sheldon, Warden of All Souls’ College, Oxford, the founder of the Sheldonian Theatre, and Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Walton speaks of as a noted fisher for umber and barbel. “ His skill,”’ he says, “is above others, and of that the poor that dwell about him have a comfortable experience.” 80 NOTES ON FISH AND FISILING. Dr. Leigh, who was Master of Balliol College, Oxford, Sir John Hawkins informs us, made angling “ the recrea- tion of his vacant hours,’ though “turned of ninety.” He died in 1790. I might have gone back farther, and mentioned other anglers of more ancient days, like Anthony and Cleopatra. The Emperor Augustus was an angler, and so was Cara- calla, whose exploits in the “Virginia Water of the Cesars ”’ Oppian has happily chronicled. We gather, too, from some scurrilous verses by the witty and venomous Lord Rochester, beginning “ Methinks I see our mighty Monarch stand, His pliant angle trembling in his hand,” that our Charles the Second was one of the fraternity. More lately among those of notable anglers we have the names of Sir Humphry Davy, Archdeacon Paley, Sir F. Chantrey, Brinsley Sheridan, Sir Anthony Car- lisle, Professor Wilson, and Sir John Soane, all men of eminence. Modern anglers are of course a very miscellaneous class, ranging from the highest to the lowest in the land. The “ Upper Ten” and the “ Plutocracy ” supply most of the salmon fishers, for salmon-fishing is an expensive amusement— “Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.” There are men who give up their lives to salmon fish- ing, and go almost all over the world for it, spending fortunes in the pursuit. They have cast a fly on almost every river in the three kingdoms, and know every inch of the famous Scotch waters almost as well as Mr. Watson Lyall, the proprietor and editor of the Sportsman’s FISHING AS A SPORT. 81 Guide to Scotland, and himself one of the most accom- plished fishermen north of the Tweed. The Norway waters are familiar to them; they have landed monsters from the salmon-haunted rivers of Hastern and Western America, and by way of a new sensation now betake them- selves to the bright waters flowing from the Himalayas, to struggle with the gigantic and plucky Mahseer. Among the more humble fishermen are all sorts and conditions of men; the comely gentleman, the professional man, the artist, the lawyer, the physician, the divine, the “ city man,” the artisan. I know among the most devoted of anglers a celebrated modern artist, one of the most eminent surgeons of the day, a distinguished “ Officer of Health,” an eminent Hast-end undertaker, a scientific master sweep, and a most learned examiner for the Civil Service whose greatest delight after “ marking papers” is to get away to the banks of a trout stream. Not a few modern statesmen have been vo- taries of the rod and line, among whom I may mention M. de Salvandy, a member of the Cabinet in the reign of Louis Philippe, who would day after day escape from his official residence at the Ministry of Public Instruction to indulge in his favourite sport of gudgeon-fishing at a well-known spot under the Ponte de la Concorde. I cannot indeed understand from his character how Mr. John Bright is one of the most enthusiastic anglers of the day, any more than I can imagine that Mr. Gladstone is likely to become one; but the fact remains that the honourable member for Birmingham is one of the fraternity. Daniel Webster, President of the United States, was an angler to the backbone, as his Angler’s Tour, a fine piece of literary composition, bears a 82 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. witness; and Charles Kingsley masterfully wielded the rod. The still progressing popularity of fishing, to which I have already alluded, may be gathered from the wonderful increase in late years of Angling Societies in the metropolis alone. Mr. R. Ghurney, the Secretary of the “Hoxton Bro- thers” and of the Central Committee of the “United London Anglers,” has most kindly furnished me with some infor- mation on this point, from which I gather that there are at the present time about eighty Angling Clubs or Societies in the metropolitan districts, fifty-three of which are asso- ciated together under the name of the “ United London Anglers,” and pay social visits in rotation to the “ Head Centre.” The fifty-three clubs have in round numbers 1700 members, and the other clubs 500, the very great majority of whom are small shopkeepers, mechanics, and “working” men. Of the same class there are at least 1000 regular anglers in the London districts who belong to. no clubs. Further it may be calculated that there are 500 more regular anglers who reside in the vicinity of the Thames, the Lea, and other waters, say within twenty miles of London. To these also may be added 1000 at least of regular anglers, of the “upper”? classes, gentle- men, merchants, and “large” shopkeepers. These added together will give us, in round numbers, a grand total of 5000 persons who make angling their chief recreation in a moderately circumscribed area of which London is the centre. The Metropolitan Angling Clubs are a great feature in the annals of modern fishing. But afew years ago they might have been counted on the fingers of the two hands, but now, as I have said, they have increased and wulti- FISHING AS A SPORT. 83 plied wonderfully. They hold their meetings, weekly or bi-weekly, in the season, at some congenial hostelry, the landlord of which is generally one of the fraternity. These names are “fanciful” but significative of their craft or indicative of the good fellowship which reigns supreme among anglers. Thus we have the “ Friendly Anglers,” the “ Amicable Waltonians,” the “ Brothers-well-met,’’ the “Golden Barbel,”’ the “Sir Hugh Myddelton,” the “ Convivial,” the “Nil Desperandum,” the “Isaak Wal- ton,” the “ Silver Trout,” the “ Walton and Cotton,” the ‘Hoxton Brothers,’ and “Brothers” and “ Anglers” innumerable with an agnomen signifying their particular district. Their club-rooms are decorated with preserved fish, many splendid cases of which they exhibited at the Piscatorial Exhibition at the Westminster Aquarium in 1877, and various piscatorial trophies. At their meetings they “show” and “weigh in” their captures, and prizes are given for the “takes.” It would be more easy almost to enumerate what these prizes are not than what they are, as they range from a set of dining-tables down to a silver thimble, and like Achilles, the least fortunate mem- ber values his prize, though it be “but a little one.” Watches, teapots, lustres, purses, cigar-cases, ef hoe genus omne, not forgetting fishing-boots, waterproof-coats, and fishing-tackle, serve as testimonials to skill and luck; while coals are also at Christmas time among the rewards of merit, and even a lively young porker and a half-grown donkey have figured among the honoraria. The establishment of these clubs in London, and in the provinces, where they flourish equally well, has given rise of late years to Angling contests, by which, of course, the “enterprising landlord” of the —— Arms, who a 2 84 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. generally gets them up and provides the prizes, con- trives to lose nothing by his enterprise. The intense interest these contests excite, and the number “of com- petitors who join in them, must be astonishing to those who are not acquainted with this modern feature of Angling. Not very long ago in the “ North Midlands,” a liberal host offered six prizes ranging from 241. to 41. to be fished for, and his friends provided 170 “ additional”’ ones, The com- petitors, who had to pay 3s. 6d. entrance each, numbered no less than 500, and they were stationed at twelve yards apart, the line thus occupying a distance along the water- side of three miles and a half. The day being a suitable one for fishing, the aggregate of fish taken was very large, the winner of the first prize scoring 19 lbs. 1} oz. “The arrangement was most complete,” says the histo- rian, “and everything passed off most satisfactorily *W—a fact to be noted, as showing consummate generalship on the part of the managers, and an exceeding amount of good fellowship and “charity ” on the part of the con- testant anglers. Still more recently on the Lea, 276 anglers entered for a great roach match, and the day being unfavourable, the winner got the first prize of 401. with 134 0z. of fish, which on that particular day were thus worth almost their weight in gold. Matches also between two anglers are now of common occurrence, and these often for very large sums. J remember not long ago seeing a challenge from one first-rate hand to another, to a contest of skill for 1002. a side. Whether these contests conduce to the good of “the craft” is another question; they certainly show the keenness with which angling is now pursued. That betting should take place on these occasions is only what might be expected, as FISHING AS A SPORT. 85 Englishmen will bet on everything “bettable,”’ such as the settling of flies on lumps of sugar, commonly known as “ Fly Loo;” the trickling of heavy raindrops down a window pane, and the racing powers of gentles on a mahogany table. But to return for a moment to our London anglers. I think it a matter for congratulation that so many hun- dreds of genuine working men, from the shop-tied mas- ters and men down to the literally “ horny-handed sons of toil,” take such intense pleasure in the innocent and healthful recreation of angling; and Iam glad that the Railway Companies, by the issue of “ Angling tickets,” at reduced fares (under the management of the Central Committee of Anglers), grant facilities of sport to those to whom the saving of a shilling is an object. I most cordially sympathize with the sentiment of the angler’s song, called the Invitation, which thus runs :— “Oh, while fishing lasts enjoy it, Let us to the streams repair ; Snatch some hours from toil and study, Nature’s blessed gifts to share. Ye who stand behind the counter, Or groan pallid at the loom, Leave the measure and the shuttle, To the rippling stream come, come! “ He that clothed their banks with verdure, Dotted them with various flowers ; Meant that ye, though doom’d to labour, Should enjoy some cheering hours ; Wipe your reeking brows, come with us With your basket and your rod ; And with happy hearts look up from Nature unto Nature’s God.” I have a great respect for the London angler, though 86 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. he is a roughish customer sometimes to look at. He means business, with his fishing-box padded on the top for a seat, his bundle of rods, and other well-selected paraphernalia and impedimenta; and he does it, if the Fish and the Fates are at all propitious. After his kind the London angler is a true sportsman. One of the great charms of angling is, that of all sports it affords the best opportunities of enjoying the wonders and beauties of Nature; while, at the same time, it developes a love of nature, and creates a taste for the study of various celestial and terrestrial phenomena. This sentence may sound like an introduction to a heavy essay, the writer of which is in duty bound to elaborate his theme to the utmost, and not unlikely to indulge in exagge- ration. I shall endeavour to avoid these errors; but I must speak as I feel, and as an enthusiastic angler, and I might say a believer in angling and its virtues, I do not hesitate to “magnify my office.” Whatever be the season of the year, whether the angler be casting his fly on the early rivers of Devonshire, mid the cold winds and storms of February and March, or later on beneath the more genial skies of April and May, or basking in the summev’s sun on the bosom of the Thames, as he is lazily indifferent whether his line tempt the fish or not, or pursuing his pastime during the soft autumn days, or the chill and short daylight hours of winter; whether he be strolling along the margin of the swift-rushing streams of Wales and Scotland, with mountain and moorland round him, or of the more gently flowing rivers of the South which meander through the rich water-meadows, curtained by hanging woods, or angling patiently on lonely loch or by side of sedgy pool, FISHING AS A SPORT. 87 he has his eyes and ears open for the sights and sounds of nature, as she presents herself to him in her various moods and phases. I do not, of course, mean that all anglers are keen lovers of nature or observant of natural phenomena; but the great majority certainly are so, and become more and more interested every year in all they see and hear about their paths. He spake truly in the * Old Play :’— “ Trust me, there is much ’vantage in it, sir ; You do forget the noisy pother of mankind, And win communion with sweet Nature’s self, In plying our dear craft.” And so not unfrequently, nay, it very often happens that the angler is led to investigate the habits of the birds, beasts, and insects which present themselves to him in his vocation, and the marvels of the lives of the innu- merable creatures which tenant the earth, air, and water ; and thus he becomes an enthusiastic, though, of course, not always a scientific naturalist; while the trees of the forest and the flowers of the field are another endless source of interest and study. It is in this respect that fishing as a sport has a great advantage over both hunting and shooting. These in their very nature so engross the sportsman’s attention, that he cannot suffer his mind to be diverted from the immediate pursuit of the sport in hand. Of course, he has what may be called leisure moments in both, but he cannot at any moment suspend, as it were, his operations, whatever be his love of nature and natural history. It is otherwise with the angler: he can lay aside his rod for any interval he likes, whenever his attention is called to some interesting object or phenomenon, and can even 88 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. pursue his sport and observations together. This is, as I have said, one of the great charms of the fisherman’s sport ; and which makes it, par excellence, “ ‘The Contem- plative Man’s Recreation.’ I can well understand the earnest ejaculation of a well-known writer and sportsman still among us, when he says,— “ You may shoot, you may hunt, you may stalk the red deer, Let me list to the music of some falling weir.” Yes—‘ The Recreation’ of a “ Contemplative Man,” in the highest sense of the word: for I will venture to say that anglers, as a rule, are “devout,” if not strictly speaking, “religious men.” It has been well said, that “an indevout philosopher is mad.” I would almost say the same of an “indevout” angler. The devout tone of angling literature, from its beginning to the present day, is very marked. Isaak Walton’s book may almost be called a religious work, so replete is it with religious thoughts which had their origin in the contemplation of the wonders and beauties of nature. I do not mean, of course, that fishing on the banks of the Lea or Dove or quiet Staffordshire streams, made Walton a religious man. He was, and would have been that, without his love of angling and of nature. But, doubtless, his angling rambles increased his love of nature, and his love of nature his love of its Creator. Here is one passage, a well-known one out of scores, which illustrates his frame of mind, and his constant contemplation of nature as (to use the striking expression of Chaucer) “The Vicar of the Almightie Lord :’— “Lo there, the nightingale! Another of our airy creatures, which breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, FISHING AS A SPORT. 89 that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight (when the very labourer sleeps securely) should hear (as I have very often) the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth and say, Lord, what musick hast Thou pro- vided for the Saints in Heaven when Thou affordest bad men such musick on earth P” I do believe that something of this spirit pervades most anglers; though, as there are some who are deaf and blind to the sights and sounds of nature round them, so are there some who, consequently, have no devout thoughts, and to whom the “looking through nature up to nature’s God” are mere empty words. I would fain hope, however, that these are the exceptions; that the old lines which date back as far as 1706, are in the main still true,— * Angling tends our bodies to exercise, And also souls to make holy and wise By heavenly thoughts and meditation— This is the angler’s recreation ;”’ and that most of those who seek recreation “ with their angle” amid the works of nature, sympathize with the words and thoughts of old John Dennys, where he says,— “All these and many more of His creation, That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see, And takes therein no little delectation To think how strange and wonderfull they bee, Framing thereof an inward contemplation To set his thoughts on other fancies free ; And while he looks on these with joyful eye, His mind is wrapt above the starry skie.” But if angling does not make men “ religious ” or even “ devout,’’ it certainly tends to make them philosophers— good “heathens ’’—as its practice is formative of many 90 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. moral virtues and excellencies, which are closely allied to Christian graces. I will not discuss the question which may arise as to whether these “ virtues”’ “ excellencies” and “ eraces’”’ lead a man to be an angler, or whether by becoming an angler these virtues are developed; for I have taken the latter hypothesis for granted, though of course in these, ag in many other matters, there is a process of “action and reaction ” ever going on, more or less. Or, to put it in a more abstract way, let us say the angler has certain “ gifts”? of avery enviable character, or even less strongly, that he is taught many admirable lessons. He has, for instance, the gift of, or 1s taught the lesson of contentment, calmness, and composure. This is how old Isaak puts it,— “Sir” (says Piscator), “there are many men that are by others taken to be serious grave men, which we contemn and pitie; men of sowre complexions ; money-getting men, that spend all their time first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it; men that are condemn’d to be rich, and always discontented, or busie. For these poor-rich-men, wee anglers pitie them; and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think ourselves happie. For (trust me, sir) we enjoy a contentednesse above the reach of such dispositions.” And in another passage, thus,— “ Anglers, and meek, quiet spirited men, are free from those high, those restless thoughts, which corrode the sweets of life.” Colonel Venables, a contemporary of Walton, writes in a sunilar strain,— “In the art of angling man hath none to quarrel with but himself, and this enmity, if any, can bo easily composed. This recreation falleth within the lowest fortune to compass,—affording also profit as well as pleasure, in following which exercise, a man may employ his thoughts in the noblest studies, almost as freely as in his closet, the FISHING AS A SPORT. 91 minds of anglers being usually calm and composed, but when he has the worse success, he only loseth but a hook and line, or, perhaps what he never possessed, a fish; and suppose he takes nothing, yet he enjoyeth a delightful walk by pleasant rivers, in sweet pastures, amongst odoriferous flowers, which gratify his senses and delight his mind.” _ Aptly, too, has a well-known scholar thus hexametrised the virtue of angling,— “ Felix cui placid fraudes atque otia cure Piscator ! tibi enim tranquillo in corde severum Subsidet desiderium, tibi sedulus angor, Dum tremula undarum facies, et mobilis umbra, Dum pure grave murmur aque, virtute quieta Composuére animum, et blandis affectibus implent.” And Washington Irving, no mean authority, has said in the same key,— “There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a gentleness of spirit and a pure serenity of mind.” That patience is one of the virtues of an angler, is a trite theme. “ Ye have heard of the patience of Job.” Who has not heard of the patience of the fisherman? An old angler and writer in 1692, says, with a slight touch of sarcasm, and perhaps after a blank day,— “If patience be a virtue, then How happy are we fishermen ! For all do know that those who fish Have patience more than heart can wish.” But whether anglers have patience or not, certain it is that this virtue is a sine qué non for success. I hold they have it, and that the constant pursuit of their pastime is constantly developing it. Bad sport, like bad sermons, calls forth this virtue. That some anglers are im- patient I admit; and doubtless they were so in Walton’s 92 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. time, as he advises them “to be patient, and forbear swearing, lest they be heard and catch no fish.” I shall probably seem to be somewhat over-doing this part of my subject, if I elaborate the many other “ virtues” which I believe characterize the fisherman, and which angling tends to form and strengthen in him. Suffice it, then, to say that the angler, as a rule, is marked by many admirable qualities which stand him in good stead in the ordinary vocations of his daily life, and that angling is a nursery for these; such as concentration, calculation, and observation. It has been well said, that angling is “a sport that requires as much enthusiasm as poetry, as much patience as mathematics, and as much caution as housebreaking ;” while John Dennys credits the perfect angler with every virtue that adorns the perfect Chris- tian—faith, hope, charity, patience, humility, courage, liberality, knowledge, peaceableness, and temperance. Angling is certainly a good recipe for safe guidance, or, rather, safe action in many an eventful crisis of our lives, when our minds are strongly agitated. We are often on the spur of the moment almost irresistibly impelled to say some hasty words, to write some hasty letter, or com- mit ourselves to some hasty line of action. A kind Mentor, or our better and more reasonable self, says, “‘ Sleep over it”’—I say, “ Fish over it.” Anglers, though I claim for them that they are humble- minded men, are on good terms with themselves, as indeed they ought to be. They are certainly philoso- phers, whose frame of mind is much to be envied. As said one of them,— “Sweet Nature around me; the world’s troubles far ; Believe mo we fishers philosophers are.” FISHING AS A SPORT. 93 A perfect angler is indeed a perfect man—our old friend, the TeTpaywvos avip of Aristotle—a many-sided and a square- sided man—a “ perfect cube;’’ one, who always presents a face and square side uppermost in all emergencies. Anglers, too, enjoy the consciousness that their sport has less drawbacks than almost any other pastime that can be named; and though by no means cynics or misan- thropes, they feel that Thomas Weaver was not far wrong, when he said,— “ All pleasures, but the angler’s, bring I’ the tail repentance, like a sting :” while the harmlessness of their amusement is an additional source of happiness. It is not “merely a pretty way of putting things,’ where Wotton sings of the fisherman as one,— “Who with his angle and his books Can think the longest day well spent ; And praises God when back he looks, And finds that all was innocent.” As a recreation for professional men, the brain-workers of the human tribe, those who are liable to mental exhaustion in callings which invoive continuous attention ata high pressure, and not infrequently induce mental depression, there is in my opinion nothing to be compared with fishing. No men stand more in need of periodical rest than our hard-worked clergy, barristers, physicians, and literary and scientific men; and the best kind of rest is that combined with recreation of a character which shall not further exhaust them. I hold it to be a most fatal mis- take to suppose that the best means of recuperating an overwrought, a jaded or depressed mind, is to take violent bodily exercise, in the way, for instance, of Alpine climbing, 94° NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. along pedestrian or rowing excursion, or laborious shooting or deer-stalking. I have known many men come back from a month or six week’s holiday, in which bodily exercise has been a main feature, worse men than they set forth.. Angling supplies sufficient opportunity for taking exercise and laying in a stock of fresh air to such persons as I have mentioned, without entailing bodily exhaustion; while it affords abundant diversion and plea- sureable excitement of not too exacting a character to the mind. It is the very kind of recreation which will restore both body and mind, and refit the man to return to work. As Pheedrus says,— “ Ludus animo debet aliquando dari, Ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi.” A word or two on angling as a sport and pastime for Ladies. Why should it not be so? It is par eacellence the “ gentle” art. Why, then, should not those pursue it whose nature is specially characterized by “ gentle- ness”? ? The question of cruelty m angling I have already disposed of. Lady anglers need fear no greater qualms than gentlemen. Peter Pindar has sung quaintly and prettily enough in his Ballad to a Fish of the Brook,— “Oh, harmless tenant of the flood ! I do not wish to spill thy blood ; For Nature unto thee Perchance has given a tender wife, And children dear to charm thy life, As she has done to me. Enjoy thy stream, oh, harmless fish ! And when an angler for his dish, Through gluttony’s vile sin, Attempts, a wretch, to pull thee ow#, God give thee strength, oh, gentle trout, To pull the rascal in /” FISHING AS A SPORT. 95 But though an appeal from a domestic “platform” is supposed to have a greater influence on a woman than on a man, our lady angler may be proof against the poet’s sentimentalism. Nor will she succumb, as Goethe’s Fisher did, if perchance a “ Syren Nymph” rises from the depths, and appeals to her,— “Why thus my watery brood With lies of human statagem, To these death-heats delude P Ch, could’st thou see how happy live The little fish below, Thyself beneath the flood would’st dive, And bliss for ever know!” The only difficulties I know of in reference to ladies angling, are the exposure to weather and the manipulation of certain baits by fair fingers; but these may easily be overcome. Several ladies are now well known as expert salmon fishers, as the records in the Field and Land and Water testify each season. Some years ago I made the acquain- tance of a lady and her husband, who were staying at the Sands Hotel, Slapton Lea, for jack-fishing. The lady was a most enthusiastic angler, as indeed ladies always are when they take to it, and it was really a treat to see her in her waterproof apron spinwing most artistically and successfully for Hsow Lucius in that famous lake. But fly- fishing for trout is the most suitable angling for the fair sex, though I cannot recommend their wading. Is there a sport or pastime which can set a lady’s figure off to better advantage than this? Mr. Millais! do let us have a picture of “A Lady Trout-Fishing!” There is no one who could do this half as well as yourself ! 96 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Here is an old song in which the ladies declare their intention to take to angling, though I will not hold them answerable for the somewhat involved meaning of the first stanza, or the Tate and Brady rhyme in the refrain,— “« By purling streams, in shady dell, The angler tunes his vocal shell, And, hark! invites the fair ; Soft and enticing are his lays, And sweet to men of sense his praise— Our smiles reward his care. The jolly angler’s sports we'll join, And love with pastime shall combine. * Too long has foolish custom crept Between the sexes—too long kept Those form’d for bliss apart ; The bottle’s rude intemp’rate noise The social charms of life destroys Which woman’s born t’ impart. “ The chase ill suits our tender frame, Exposure brings the blush of shame— Indelicate display ; But see the fair with arm divine Spring round the rod, and throw the line, *Tis grace herself at play. “ We'll have the peaceful angler’s joys; The world’s tumult, care, and noise For calmer scenes resign ; Upon our cheeks health’s ruddy glow Ethereal beauty will bestow, And make our charms divine. * Boy, hither bring th’ elastic wand, Endued with magic by our hand, *T will charm the finny prey ; With graceful sweep, the line once thrown, Fishes as well as men shall own Our universal sway. The jolly angler’s sport, &c.” FISHING AS A SPORT. 97 Edmund Waller, the most charming “ song”’ writer in the English language, though he wrote two centuries ago, and for ever to be remembered as the author of the Ode On a Lady’s Girdle, and himself, as Walton tells us, “a lover of the angle,’ has immortalized Jady anglers in his poem entitled On a Lady Fishing with an Angle, and commencing — “See where the fair Clorinda sits.” I would that the ‘screaming sisterhood” of these latter days would take to the Angle instead of to law, physic, and the assertion of ‘‘ Woman’s Rights.” No one will deny their right to enjoy Fishing as a Sport. 98 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. NOTE IV. FISHING AS A FINE ART. mepuppadys avnp. SoPHOCLEs. “Oh, sir, "tis not to be questioned but that it is an Art, and an Art worth your learning.” —WattTon. “ You see the ways a fisherman doth take To catch the fish, what engines doth he make. Behold how he engageth all his wits, Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks, and nets.” Bunyan. Antiquity of angling—Ancient and modern fishing-tackle—Progress of angling as an “ art’—Numberless questions to be considered by anglers as to habitats and habits of fish, tackle, baits, &c. —Number- less expedients to be resorted to—Education of modern fish—The angler a meteorologist, geologist, entomologist, and naturalist gene- rally—Character of the angler by Gervase Markham—Use of aquaria to anglers—Some suggestions. Untrss mankind were vegetarians before the Flood, as some persons think they were from a comparison of the passages in the Book of Genesis, where to man is given dominion over the animal creation, it may almost be taken for granted that the capture of fish for food was among his earliest pursuits. Nets and spears would probably be the chief means used for such capture, but it ig not less probable that hooks and lines, and perhaps rods, were FISHING AS A FINE ART. 99 among the earliest “engines ” employed in fishing. As Ihave said in the last Note, angling only became a “ sport”’ as civilization advanced; but it was an “ Art” before it was a sport. Possibly also we may regard Tubal-Cain, the “instructor of every artificer in brass and iron,’’ as the “ Father of Angling” as an Art, or at least the chief developer of it, and, perhaps the first maker of artistic fish-hooks in metal. Tubal-Cain was the direct descendant of Cain, the son of Adam, in the sixth generation, and it is to members of this branch of the human family we look as the authors of the earliest useful inventions and “elegancies” of semi-civilized life. A very ancient mythological tradition makes Halieus (“ fisherman ”’) the first builder of a fishing-boat, and Vulcan his son as the perfector of the art of fishing; and further identifies this Vulcan with Tubal-Cain. Tradition also connects Venus (Aphrodite—“ born from the sea”) with Naamah, Tubal-Cain’s sister, who is said to have been one of the wives of Ham, Noah’s son. Thus a knowledge of Fish and Fishing would have been introduced among the imme- diate descendants of Noah, to whom it would have been most useful, as fish were the only animals which did not suffer from the flood. But all this for what it is worth. Certainly the old Phoenicians and Egyptians practised the “Art” of angling. So also the ancient Greeks, as Homer tells us “ Of beetling rocks that overhang the flood, Where silent anglers cast insidious food, With fraudful care await the finny prize, And sudden lift it quivering to the skies.” In the Book of Job we read, “ Canst thou draw out levia- H 2 100 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. than with a hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn ?”—the last word probably referring to fish-hooks made of tough wood (?). In the prophet Habakkuk we read of fish being taken “with the angle ;” and in Isaiah of “ those that cast the hook into the river.” The Greeks and Romans of later times, as became civilized people, were anglers for diversion’s sake, and artistic anglers too, as piscatory writers bear witness. A modern angler cannot fail to enter into the spirit of many of the passages from Oppian, and feel that the fishermen of old were of the same fraternity as “ brothers of the angle”? now. Here is a specimen of the old poet well rendered into our native tongue :— “A bite! Hurrah! the length’ning line extends, Above the tugging fish the arch’d reed bends; He struggles hard, and noble sport will yield, My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field. See how he swims up, down, and now athwart The rapid stream—now pausing as in thought ; And now you force him from the azure deep ; He mounts, he bends, and with resilient leap Bounds into air! There see the dangler twirl, Convulsive start, hang, curl, again uncurl, Caper once more like young Terpsichore In giddy gyres above the sounding sea, Till near’d, you seize the prize with steady wrist, And grasp at last the bright funambulist!” and another— “The fisher, standing from the shallop’s head, Projects the length’ning line and plunging lead, Gently retracts, then draws it in apace, While flocking anthias follow and give chase FISHING AS A FINE ART. 101 As men their foe, so these pursue their fate, And closely press the still receding bait. Nor long in vain the tempting morsel pleads, A hungry anthia seizes, snaps, and bleeds; The fraud soon felt, he flies in wild dismay, Whizz goes the line—begins Piscator’s play ! His muscles tense, each tendon on the rack, Of swelling limbs, broad loins, and sinewy back Mark yon fine form, erect with rigid brow, Like stately statue sculptured at the prow, From wary hand who pays the loosening rein Maneeuvring holds, or lets it run again ! And see! the anthia not a moment flags, Resists each pull, and ’gainst the dragger drags ; With lashing tail, to darkest depths below Shoots headlong down, in hopes t’ evade the foe. ‘Now ply your oars, my lads!’ Piscator bawls ; The huge fish plunges—down Piscator falls! A second plunge, and, lo! th’ ensanguined twine Flies through his fissured fingers to the brine. As two strong combatants of balanced might Force first essay, then practise every sleight, So these contend—awhile a well-match’d pair— Till frantic efforts by degrees impair The anthia’s strength, who drain’d of vital blood, Soon staggers feebly through the foaming flood, Then dying turns his vast unwieldly bulk Reversed upon the waves, a floating hulk. Tow’d to his side, with joy Piscator sees The still leviathan ; still on his knees, With arms outstretch’d, close clasps the gurgling throat, Makes one long pull and hauls him in the boat.” There is a true piscatorial ring about these lines; but however much the anglers of old enjoyed their sport, they are far distanced by the moderns in fishing as a fine art. The truth is ancient tackle, notwithstanding the skill of Messrs. Tubal-Cain and Co., was of rough construction 102 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. generally speaking, though probably quite good enough for the capture of the uneducated fish of the period. Jointed rods were unknown to the ancients, but at the same time, as anglers are well aware, some of the best of modern rods, especially those of Irish make, are in one piece. The ancients used light flexible wood, or some kind of “reed ” for these rods, which probably varied in size and weight according to the kind of fishing pursued. Their lines were made of hemp, and other fibrous sub- stances, and sometimes horsehair; gut being a modern invention. They had no winches, or rings on their rods, and so played the fish simply on the latter, except of course when they used no rod at all, like “ Piscator,”” in the last passage quoted from Oppian. He probably had his spare line wound round his left hand or wrist, and using his right arm as his rod, paid out “the loosening rein,” drew in, and “let it run again,” according to circumstances. Ancient hooks, of which there are many examples in different museums, varied much in form and size, and were made of steel, or, as Oppian says, of “ har- dened bronze,’? which metal the learned Dr. Badham reminds us was not composed of zinc and copper, like our softer alloy, but of tin and copper, and according to Pliny was so hard that it could be worked to represent the finest hairs of the human head. The hooks like ours had different “bends,” and for temper were superior to a vast quantity made in the present day, and circulated among anglers by the trade. I hardly know a more vexatious thing than to lose a good fish through the snapping or bending of a bad hook. The maker of such is almost as wicked a man as a modern constructor of life-buoys, who filled his canvas with some very unbuoyable material, instead of cork, and FISHING AS A FINE ART. 103 shipped them among his “appliances for saving life at sea” | But though lacking the beautifully made rods of our time and winches, the ancients practised most of the kinds of fishing now in vogue. They were bottom fishers, using floats, and baiting with worms and gentles as we do, and also pastes flavoured with various chemicals. Humble bottom fishers were Antony and Cleopatra; and I mention them here not only to illustrate my discourse, but to show that I am acquainted with the story of the tawny queen, who in revenge for her lover’s mean device of having live fish attached to his hook by divers, in order to win the “ angling sweepstakes” they indulged in, caused. her own diver to fix to Antony’s hook a dried fish which he pulled up to his confusion—a story without which I suppose no book on angling would be considered complete. The ancients, too, were “trollers” and “live- baiters,” at least for sea fish, as may be gathered from Oppian, who suggests the use of a live labrax if possible, and thus describes trolling with a dead one on something like our modern “ gorge” hook, raising and sinking it alternately. “ He holds the labrax, and beneath his head Adjusts with care an oblong shape of lead, Named from its form a dolphin; plumb’d with this, The bait shoots headlong through the blue abyss. The bright decoy a living creature seems, As now on this side, now on that it gleams, Till some dark form across its passage flit, Touches the lure, and finds the biter bit!” But this is not all. The ancient Romans practised fly- fishing. Martial asks, 104: NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “ Who has not seen the Scarus rise, Decoy’d and caught by fraudful flies P” And Dr. Badham quotes the following interesting passage from CElian :— “The Macedonians who live on the banks of the river Astreus, are in the habit of catching a particular fish in that river by means of a fly called hippurus. A very singular insect itis; bold and troublesome like all its kind, in size a hornet, marked like a wasp, and buzzing like a bee. These flies are the prey of certain speckled fish, which no sooner see them settling on the water than they glide gently beneath, and, before the hippurus is aware, snap at and carry him as suddenly under the stream as an eagle will seize and bear aloft a goose from a farm-yard, or a wolf take a sheep from its fold. The predilection of these speckled fish for their prey, though familiarly known to all who inhabit the district, does not induce the angler to attempt their capture by impaling the living insect, which is of so delicate a nature that the least handling would spoil its colour and appearance, and render it unfit as a lure. But adepts in the sport have contrived a taking device, ‘ captiosa quedam machinatio, to circumvent them; for which purpose they invest the body of the hook with purple wool, and having adjusted two wings of a waxy colour, so as to form an exact imitation of the hippurus, they drop these abstruse cheats gently down the stream. The scaly pursuers, who hastily rise and expect nothing less than a dainty bait, snap the decoy, and are immediately fixed to the hook.” This is circumstantial enough; and it may be taken for granted that the “speckled fish”? was a member of the numerous Salmonide family who are still open to a rise being taken out of them. The manufacture of fishing tackle at the present time is an art in itself, and intimately connected with Fishing as a Fine Art. I need hardly say there is tackle and tackle, dear and good, dear and bad, cheap and bad, and cheap and (sometimes) good. There is first-rate tackle of all kinds made in the capitals of the three king- doms, in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. I must confess FISHING AS A FINE ART. 105 that I give the palm to London-made tackle, though perhaps more trash is made up in London than elsewhere. This is the “ cheap and bad” class. At the well-known shops of our chief metropolitan thoroughfares the best of all tackle is sold, most of the shops manufacturing their own goods of the best materials, and employing their own workmen. The names of many of these establishments are “household words ”’ among anglers—such as Messrs. Little and Co., Williams and Co., Alfred and Sons, Aldred, Farlow, Bowness, &c. These sell only the best tackle. Some persons may perhaps class their wares under the “dear and good.” Certainly good and in one sense dear, because, as a rule in life, all good articles required for constant use are dear. Dear too, because almost all goods in the shops of our chief metro- politan thoroughfares are dearer than those in less frequented streets and out-of-the-way districts, for the simple reason that shop-rent in the former is much dearer than in the latter. You may find, here and there, if you like to take the trouble to look for them, and if you are a judge in such matters, makers and sellers of “good and cheap” tackle in quiet streets and secluded quarters, and some of these make for the first-class shops which convert the “ good and cheap” into the “good and dear.” A great deal of good and moderately cheap tackle is made at Nottingham, but I know that some which is sold there is manufactured in Londen. My advice, however, to anglers,is to go to the “ good and dear” shops, for there they are certain to get what they want. Experi- ments in “cheap” tackle generally end in disaster, loss of fish, and loss of temper, for even our “ perfect ” angler can be ruffled. 106 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. The manufacture of tackle is so extensive, that it may be almost dignified by the title of a “ British Industry.” Take, for instance, the well-known firm of Messrs S. Allcock and Co., of Redditch, who employ no less than 400 hands in the manufacture of hooks and all kinds of tackle, and indeed it may be said of everything necessary for an angler’s outfit. They have a branch establishment in Canada, and may fairly be considered one of the leading wholesale firms in the trade. 1t is well worth a journey to see the business as carried on at Redditch. Making a long jump to the Far West, there is Messrs Hearder’s establish- ment at 195, Union Street, Plymouth, which has celebrated its centenary. Fora variety of most subtle inventions for the capture of both salt and fresh-water fish, commend me to the stock of Messrs Hearder. The “ Plano-convex minnows”? of different sizes, for trout, perch, and jack are admirable, and will kill well in almost any water. Mr. William Hearder is a very ingenious gentleman, but being a practical fisherman, does not indulge in mere “ fancy” tackle and baits. He has conferred a great boon on anglers, who go westward, by providing them with an excellent map of river, lake, and sea fishing, in South Devon, and part of Cornwall, and also with a “ Guide,” giving a vast amount of most useful information. But better still, he is always most ready to give personal advice to anglers and sea-fishermen, who may be strangers in western districts. His name is well known to most angling readers of the Field, to which he has for many years contributed. I may mention also that Mr. W. Hearder designed and manufactured nets and other appliances for the recent “ Challenger expedition.” Turning back for a moment to London tackle-makers, FISHING AS A FINE ART. 107 it might almost be said that they have now brought their art to the highest perfection of which it is capable. Cer- tain it is that most of the articles the best makers produce are models of workmanship. But their specialty is rods. Nothing can excel a good London rod. It is almost as true as a gun barrel. The London made “ American spliced-cane” rods are very marvels of accurate manufac- ture, and are evidently becoming very popular among anglers who can afford to pay for them. These rods are made even to the end of the finest top joint, of six distinct pieces of split bamboo, only the outside and toughest part being used. These pieces are sawn by machinery with mathematical precision, glued together, and then bound with silk bindings at intervals ofan inch and a half. The rods present a most handsome appearance, and for perfect balance, pliability, and durability cannot be surpassed. They are made like other rods, in joints, double-brazed of course; the butts are wound round with cane for about eight inches, in order to give the holder a good grip, and the moveable winch ferule is “scored” for a similar reason. About the lowest price for a trout rod of this class is 5/., and for a salmon rod about 8/., but at some shops the figures range much higher, some of the salmon rods costing as much as 20/1. The prices cer- tainly seem stiff; but then the workmanship and ever- lasting wear of these rods must be taken into consideration. Americans claim to be the inventors of this “ spliced- cane” principle; but these rods were made in England years before they were heard of in America. Mr. J. C. Dougall, the celebrated gunmaker, of 59, St. James’s Street, London, generally has in stock some of these rods by the best American makers, and I could hardly 108 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. believe the fact till I tested it, namely, that an 18 ft. rod weighs only 2Ibs. 8oz., and a 12 ft. only 90z. So ex- quisitely are rods manufactured on the American prin- ciple, that it is almost impossible to believe that each joint, as I have said, is made up of six distinct pieces; but any one can satisfy himself that this is the case by seeing them “in the rough” at the establishment of a manufacturer. They look perfectly round like most other rods, but on close inspection, will be found to present an hexagonal formation. Spinning rods, manu- factured on this principle, are very light and strong, and cost, I believe, about 51. It is but fair to make special mention of these London-made ‘“‘ American” rods, as our “cousins” have a habit of appropriating inventions first introduced on this side of the “ Herring-pond.” Then, again, there is Jittle or no doubt but that “ spliced- cane” rods in three pieces were made in this country years before the American siz-piece rods were heard of. Indeed I have been told that in 1851 Harl Craven had one, which had been in the family fifty years, and was still in use and in good order, though tons of fish had been killed with it. At the International Exhibition of the year just mentioned, these three-piece rods were shown; and they are still to be had at many of the London tackle-makers. They are most excellent imple- ments, and, of course, cheaper than the six-piece rods. Anglers should certainly keep a rod or two of this class in their rod-rack. It is almost impossible to speak too highly of the best London-made fishing-rods of all kinds, so _ perfectly balanced are they, so exquisitely finished, and so light for their length and strength. Talking of light rods, what FISHING AS A FINE ART. 109 better present could a gentleman make to a “ lady angler ” than a pretty mottled gudgeon-rod, which is manufactured to weigh only 10 oz. with its two tops and bag, and yet will stand any amount of fair and even unfair work? A marvellous amount of ingenuity has been shown of late years in manufacturing a variety of articles to meet the angler’s wants. Compare, for instance, old-fashioned to modern landing-nets, with their whalebone rings and netting of prepared silk, which prevents the annoyance of artificial flies catching in it, with their hinges, and spring “knuckle joints’? enabling them to be packed by the side of the rod, or slung over the arm; a slight jerk being all that is required to make them spring out straight for use, Hven the more comfortable slinging of fishing-baskets has been attended to. Instead of being made after the old fashion, with a single strap to lie diagonally over the chest and back of the angler, and ruck up his collar to his great discomfort, a strap or webbing is passed over the left shoulder like a deacon’s stole, while another comes round his waist and is attached to the shoulder-strap near the basket by means ofa spring swivel which he can unfasten ina moment, and relieve himself of his load. By this arrangement, too, his right arm and side are free from impediment, and the waistband is also avail- able for hanging his landing net on, by means of a flattened hook. Another admirable article I have recently noticed is a new multiplyimg winch. I know that the majority of artistic anglers are against multipliers, but I must side with the minority, for in trout-fishing, when you are wading, and especially when fishing up- stream, a multiplyer, in my opinion, is the greatest com- fort both in playing your fish, and in recovering your line 110 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. when needed. The multiplier in question is a great im- provement on all former ones, it being almost impossible for the wheels, though increased in number, to get fixed. If I may be pardoned the oxymoron, I would say it is a perfect instance of “simple complexity.” London-tied artificial flies are known for their excellence wherever in the wide world a fly is thrown; though by this remark I by no means wish to decry the flies made elsewhere. Lessons on the art are, I believe, given by several London tackle-makers; but personally I have always felt that “life is too short,’’ except for those most miserable of all men, who, like the frozen-out gardeners, “have no work to do,” to make it worth while to tie one’s own flies. By the way, what a worry it is to many anglers when fish are rising, or even when they are not, to have to put on a fresh fly, to uncoil the whisp of flies in their books, and straighten the gut; and then how many flies are destroyed by replacing them hurriedly in their ordinary books again! Ihave always avoided all this by using a fly- book made many years ago at Bakewell in Derbyshire. It is about a foot long, and five inches broad, with each leaf double, and folding in towards the back. On the top and bottom of each leaf alternately is a piece of flannel about four inches square, and on this each fly can be hooked separately, the gut being perfectly straightened beforehand. The length of the book does not really increase the likelihood of its falling out of your pocket, and it prevents its turning crossways as ordinary books do, or getting mixed up with other things, and so rendered difficult of extraction. I have never seen one of this Bakewell pattern in use among FISHING AS A FINE ART. 111 southern fly-fishermen; but I feel sure that if a London tackle-maker would produce some “ Bakewell” books, he would benefit the fly-fishing community and himself too. But perhaps this is of the nature of a digression, though the art of tackle-making is cognate to “ fishing as an art;” and, depend upon it, a very great part of the comfort of an angler, and a great part of his success, is due to having good and artistic tackle. It is part of his art to know what is good tackle, and what suitable for different kinds of fishing; he should know the various constructions of rods, winches, lines, and hooks, the different qualities of gut, and the merits and demerits of the various articles of an angiler’s outfit. On all this I could discourse at length, but the ground has been so thoroughly travelled over and exhaustively described by Messrs. Francis Francis, Chol- mondeley Pennell, and other modern angling authors, that I shall only incidentally refer to such matters in my Notes to follow on our different fresh-water fish. As there has been a marked progress of late years in the art of tackle-making, so has there been in the art of angling. Fishing may fairly claim to bea “ Fine Art.” Comparatively speaking, our forefathers used but coarse tackle, and, though they loved the sport, hardly regarded angling as an art. It is difficult to imagine Walton and his fellows angling without a winch, though its use was known to Dame Juliana Berners, who calls it a “‘renninge vyce.”” Probably some of them kept a little extra line coiled in the left hand to let out when a big fish was hooked, or used their thumbs for winches, but generally a fish would have been killed by main force—i.e., the strength of the rod and line and the strength of the angler. This is how old Isaak speaks of playing a big fish :— 112 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “ Ay marry, sir, that was a good fish indeed; if I had had the luck to have taken up that rod, then ’tis twenty to one he should not have broke my line by running to the rod’s end, as you suffered him. I would have held him within the bent of my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout that is near an ell long, which was of such a length and depth that he had his picture drawn, and now is to be seen at mine host Rickabie’s, at the George in Ware; and it may be by giving that very great Trout the rod, that is, by casting it to him into the water, I might have caught him at the long-run, for so I use always to do when I meet with an over-grown fish; and you will learn to do so too hereafter, for I tell you, fishing is an art, or, at least it is an art to catch fish.” Well, as Walton calls such fishing an art, I suppose we must admit that it was, afterits kind. But when we com- pare it with the artistic handling of a big fish ona fine line and light, pliable rod by a modern professor, the old master’s work gives one the idea of being very crude and rough. What would the old man have thought of the modern Nottingham style? I fancy he would have been more than astonished at seeing any such a method attempted. Such fine work was utterly beyond his ken. This introduction of the Nottingham style a few years ago I consider marked an era in the progress of fishing as a fine art. To see a first-rate Trent or Thames fisherman nick a barbel some thirty yards off or more as quickly and cleanly as you would a roach just beneath the point of your rod, is indeed a pretty sight, or to watch him ten- derly yet firmly handling a wattled monster of some 10 lbs. on his gossamer line and “ bending reed.”? Then, again, to what perfection has the art of spinning been brought, say such as is practised on the Thames for Thames trout! As for artistic fly-fishers ; I feel sure that Walton’s friend Cotton, with all his knowledge and FISHING AS A FINE ART. 113 skill, could not hold a candle to the most moderate of them were he to revisit “ the glimpses of the moon.” There are few things which annoy me more than to hear persons with no taste for fishing, and utterly ignorant of its practice, speak of it as a contemptible sport, and utterly unworthy of being called by the name of an art. Of course one’s conceit is a little hurt, and something akin to anger naturally rises at hearing one’s favourite craft despised, and the skill of anglers absolutely ignored. It almost seems that some persons have an idea that any rod, any line, any float, any hook with any bait, in any part of the water, and at any depth, will do for any kind of fish ; that all days and seasons are alike for all fish; and that one fisherman is as good or as bad as another. I suppose it is part of our trial in this sublunary state to “ put up ” with ignoramuses. To try and put them down is hopeless ; to instruct them is impossible. To tell them that an angler has to know and to think of more things than any other sportsman only provokes an incredulous smile or elicits something like a personal insult. And yet such is really the case. The angler, to be worthy of the name, must be like a general—a man who can make comprehensive dispositions, and at the same time grasp details. He must be ready to adapt himself to the circumstances of the moment, and to meet all sudden emer- gencies and difficulties. How great must be his knowledge and experience in all that concerns his art! He must know the haunts and habits of all different fish generally, and how these are modified in different waters and in different states of the same water, and at different seasons of the year. He must know the different kinds of tackle proper to be used for different fish and under different circum- i 114 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. stances, his success in no slight degree depending on the nature of the rod, line, float, and hook he employs’ for the capture of the particular fish he is in quest of, and the judgment with which he puts his tackle together. He must be learned in the great variety of baits taken by different fish, being stored, not only with book-learning, but with what he has gleaned from brother anglers and acquired by his own personal experience. Then, again, he must be acquainted with the whole question of ground- baiting, on which so much has been written, and on some points concerning which scientific anglers still differ. These and many other matters of angling knowledge he must be master of, and, I need hardly add, of all the various niceties of handling his rod, working his winch and line, and striking, playing, and landing his fish. And all these matters of knowledge, and accomplishments, are only attained by careful study and a long and patient apprenticeship to angling. When an angler has become a learned angler, there is as much difference between his knowledge and that of an unlearned angler as there is between the knowledge of a Bacon and a country bump- kin; and when the angler has become an “ artist,’ there is as much difference between his art and that of the bungler as between the art of a Titian and a public-house sign-painter—of a Phidias and a second-rate statuary of the Marylebone Road. The thorough angler, too, is a man of as many expe- dients as our old friend worvpntis’ Oduccevs, the “resource- ful” (if I may coin a word) Ulysses. He has need of them, indeed, to meet the vagaries and capriciousness of fish, the exigencies of the weather and water, and the con- stantly recurring difficulties of fishing certain spots; and FISHING AS A FINE ART. 115 thus he must not only be well versed in all the ordinary knowledge and practice of his art, but be also a “ ready ” man. That the angler should be all I have described him, and that fishing shonld be treated as a Fine Art, is absolutely necessary now-a-days, in consequence of the high education of modern fish. The expression. “ high education”? may perhaps raise a smile on the face of some non-angling sceptic, if perchance my Notes are scanned by such an one ; but anglers well know what I mean by it. The fish of our rivers, lakes, and ponds are very different creatures now to what they were, say, some fifty years ago, when but one angler could be counted for every hundred at the present time who ply the gentle art. In former days there were miles and acres of water in the United King- dom hardly ever fished; now there is hardly an inch which is not overworked, so popular has fishing become. The less fish are tried for in any particular water, the easier they are to catch. A mere tyro, with the clumsiest of tackle, can take fish where the race is unconscious more or less of the arts of his enemy, man. Some years ago I used to fish on what was almost a “virgin” pond, in private grounds at Blackheath, and I found no great difficulty in catching a dozen or so of carp and bream in an afternoon, weighing from 3 lbs. to 6 lbs. each. I should doubt whether there is a pond in the country where such a feat could be accomplished now. Out ofa similar pond at Stratford, in Essex, when quite a boy, in a few hours I took enough carp, averaging 1 lb. a-piece, to fill all the available pails and watering-pots belonging to the house, lugging the fish up, often two at a time, on half- baited hooks, without intermission. They had never been 12 116 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. angled for before; but I am inclined to think the very large number of fish in the water, and the consequent scarcity of food, had something to do with the eager way in which they took the bait. Another instance of this sort of thing occurred to me ina pond, through which ran a very slight stream, at the bottom of the grounds of Ash- brittle Rectory, Somerset. The rector said he believed there were some trout in it, but he had never heard of any one trying for them. I made experiment of it at once, and at almost every cast with an ordinary red palmer I rose a fish, filling my basket in about the space of two hours with very pretty trout, ranging from $lb. to 13 1b., and then giving up from sheer repletion of sport, if, indeed, simple slaughter of artless fish can be called sport. How many fish, I wonder, should I have caught in the same time in the well-fished trout stream hard by? The denizens of any particular water gradually get “educated” by experience. “Suffering is teaching,” says the old Greek proverb; and this is very true in reference to fish. It may be difficult to understand the intellectual, or perhaps I should say, psychological process of this education, and how the fear of man and the knowledge of his art and hostility is transmitted to the piscine progeny through the ova, just as the same gradually acquired fear and knowledge is transmitted through the egg or foetus of birds and beasts. But there the fact is. Birds and beasts which, on their first intro- duction to man, displayed little or no fear of him, have gradually become “ educated,” and learnt to fly from him as their enemy, and to be suspicious of his wiles, shrinking from him almost as soon as they have seen daylight in this world. So it has come to pass with fish in our home FISHING AS A FINE ART, 117 waters ; and as the number of anglers increases, so will the shyness of the fish, and the difficulty ofcatching them. I verily believe that some fish know as well as the angler what is going on for their destruction ; Thames fish in particular, which, perhaps, indulge in a piscine smile as they see and hear the punt moored, and recognize the descent of the familiar ground-bait, indicating most plainly the ‘carrying on the same old game.” Here I would quote a passage from Stewart’s Practical Angler bearing upon this topic :— “Much fishing,” he says, “ besides to a certain extent thinning the trout, operates against the angler’s killing large takes by making the remaining trout more wary, and it is more from this cause than the scarcity of trout, that so many anglers return unsuccessful from much- fished streams. The waters also now remain brown-coloured for such a short time that the modern angler is deprived, unless on rare occa- sions, of even this aid to his art of deception; and the clearness of the water and the increased wariness of the trout are the main causes why the tackle of fifty years ago would be found so faulty now. Fifty years ago it was an easy thing to fill a basket with trout, not so now; then there were ten trout for one there is now. The colour of the water favoured the angler, and the trout were comparatively unsophisticated; now filling a basket with trout, at least in some of our southern streams open to the public, when they are low and clear, is a feat of which any angler may be proud... . Angling is in fact every day becoming more difficult, and consequently better worthy of being followed as a scientific amusement. So far from looking upon the increase of anglers with alarm, it ought to be regarded with satisfaction; the more trout are fished for, the more wary they become; the more wary they are, the more skill is required on the angler’s part; and as the skill an amuse- ment requires constitutes one of its chief attractions, angling is much better sport now than it was fifty years ago.” This is quite true; and though, perhaps, I may be charged by “ outsiders” with somewhat exaggerated views of angling as an “art,” I maintain that it is a most con- 118 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. summate art, and a science in which there is no “ finality.” Jt may, as indeed it does, sometimes happen that an ignoramus, with most unartisticlike tackle, “the clothes- prop and line style,’”’ as it has been called, will hook a big fish, and in a most unartisticlike style, succeed in cap- turing him; but no one, as a rule, in these days of highly cultivated fish, whether he pursue fly-fishing, spinning, or bottom-fishing, can have a reasonable hope of getting a basket of fish where the water is much fished, unless he have the best and finest of tackle, and be the thorough artist, man of knowledge, experience, and expedients, such as I have sketched the thorough angler to be. Old Isaak would stand but little chance of a prizein a modern ‘‘angling sweepstakes ”’ in competition with the ordinary hands of our modern angling clubs, and a London or Sheffield roach angler would any day catch two fish to his one. . I might say more, and insist with truth that the perfect artistic angler must be an ichthyologist, a naturalist, and particularly an entomologist, so that he may be assisted in his art by his scientific knowledge of flies and other insects he uses in their natural state or imitated from nature, and also of the many varieties of worms, the dif- ference and culture of which would take a long chapter to describe : that he must be a geologist too, in order to know the kinds of flies which may be expected to rise from the different soils of river beds, and the different insects which frequent them: and last, but not least, a meteoro- logist, so that he may know what to expect, and what to do according to the variations of the weather, and be able to account in some measure at least for the capriciousness of fish, which are much affected by atmospheric influences. FISHING AS A FINE ART. 119 I notice in my edition of Best’s Art of Angling, that the author, who was a learned and clever fisherman, has no less than thirty pages on “ Prognostics of Weather,” &c., so important did he consider it for an angler to be a meteorologist. As an illustration of the value to the fisherman of some knowledge of natural history, I may mention an object which struck me very forcibly as I was wander- ing through the Piscatorial Exhibition held in June, 1877, at the Westminster Aquarium. It was a case of stuffed water ousels, and below them a case of some dozen or more water insects in their various stages, which prey upon the ova of trout. These insects are found in the bodies of water ousels on dissection, and thus the owner of a trout stream who might be inclined to shoot these interesting birds on the assumption that they destroyedova, is taught that they are his best friends, from the fact that they destroy wholesale some of his worst enemies. But here I must draw this note to an end, by quoting a quaint passage from old Gervase Markham’s book, to which I have referred on page 38, on the character of an angler. He says,— “A skilfull Angler ought to be a generall scholler, and seene in all the liberall sciences, as a grammarian, to know how either to write or discourse of his art in true and fitting termes, either without affectation or rudenes. Hee should have sweetness of speech to perswade and intice others to delight in an exercise so much laudable. Hee should have strength of arguments to defend and maintaine his profession against envy or slander. Hee should have knowledge in the sunne, moone, and starres, that by their aspects hee may guesse the season- ablenesse, or unseasonablenesse of the weather, the breeding of the stormes, and from what coasts the winds are ever delivered. “Hee should be a good knower of countries, and well used to high wayes, that by taking the readiest pathes to every lake, brook, or 120 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. river, his journies may be more certaine and lesse wearisome. Hee should have knowledge of proportions of all sorts, whether circular, square, or diametricale, that when hee shall be questioned of his diurnall progresses, hee may give « geographical description of the angles and channels of rivers, how they fall from their heads, and what compasses they fetch in their several windings. He must also have the perfect art of numbering, that in the sounding of lakes or rivers, hee may know how many foot or inches each severally con- tayneth, and, by adding, subtracting, or multiplying the same, hee may yield the reason of every river’s swift or slow current. Hee should not be unskillfull in musick, that whensoever either melancholy, heavinesse of his thought, or the perturbation of his owne fancies, stirreth up sadnesse in him, he may remove the same with some godly hymne or dntheme, of which David gives him ample examples. “Hee must then be full of humble thoughts, not disdaining, when occasion commands, to kneele, lye down, or wet his feet or fingers, as oft as there is any advantage given thereby unto the gaining the end of his labour. Then hee must be strong and valiant, neither to be amazed with stormes nor affrighted with thunder, but to hold them according to their natural causes and the pleasure of the Highest: neither must he like the foxe which preyeth upon lambs, imploy all his labour against the smallest frie, but, like the lyon, that seazeth elephants, thinke the greatest fish which swimmeth a reward little enough for the paines which he endureth. Then must hee be prudent, that apprehending the reasons why the fish will not bite, and all other casuall impediments which hinder his sport, and knowing the remedies for the same, he may direct his labours to be without troublesome- nesse.”” I have said there is no “ finality ” in the Art of Angling. Indeed, judging from experience, it is a question whether the high and still progressing education of modern fish will not eventually so baffle the art of the fisherman that he will consider the propriety of retiring from an unequal contest. Can we advance our art so as to keep pace with the advancing intelligence of our fish? We certainly must try. Nil disperandum is one of the most significant of the fisherman’s mottoes. We must make FISHING AS A FINE ART. 121 fresh experiments in angling. We must seek some new inventions in the way of tackle, new kinds of baits, new methods of angling. As a rule anglers are, I think, too conservative in their ideas, and are loth to adopt new notions. The Thames professional fishermen, excellent artists though they be, are remarkable for their aversion to anything new in the way of tackle or the way of fishing. And so to a great extent are most of the “ locals” by the salmon and trout-rivers and other waters in the three kingdoms. They adhere to traditions too closely, and by their emphatic assert ons, that if their methods fail, none other will succeed, often prevent a stranger from trying some new method or expedient. But, while I should be the last to underrate “local”? knowledge, I would counsel anglers to think and act for themselves, especially when they fail to get sport according to their own or local traditions. We must not be bound too closely by precedent. It was not many years ago since the “ Nottingham style ” was introduced on the Thames. But at first the Thames professionals and Thames anglers in general would not have it at any price; but it was soon demonstrated that great takes of fish could be had by it when all the traditional methods failed. There are possibly, indeed very probably, other “styles,” not yet dreamt of in our angling philosophy, to be invented, which will be attended with similar success. It is really “ some- thing new” presented to them which the fish want, or rather which the angler wants to present to them. It is familiarity which fish gradually acquire even with the best methods that “breeds contempt,” and enables them to rise superior to the fisherman’s skill. The multiplication of aquaria in the present day might, 122 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. I think, be utilized to advance the angler’s art. He can take his stand by the side of the tanks and watch the various movements of fish, and especially their manner of taking their food, and ejecting what they do not care for, or are suspicious of. I am sure the angler might learn much from his observations, as a variety of suggestions which might be useful in his art would present them- selves. At all events he would observe some interesting facts, which would account for more than one mystery connected with his craft. For instance, he would notice that some fish, especially the deep-bellied ones, take their food almost standing on their heads, and that some rise up tail first through the water after taking it. I noticed this particularly one day in the case of the tench at the Westminster Aquarium. The fact at once supplies the reason for our floats sometimes assuming a horizontal position on the water when a fish, especially a bream, bites ; for a fish rising tail first from the bottom with the bait, at last has the shots on the line suspended from his mouth, and the float, relieved of their weight, consequently ceases to “ cock.” A suggestion has been made, though I do not suppose seriously, that exhibitions of fishing in Aquaria tanks would prove attractive. The fisherman is to take his stand or seat of course above the tank, and then to go through all the usual processes, casting in his ground-bait, plumbing the depth, and angling for his fish secundum artem. But, joking apart, by such exhibitions, or rather I would call them experiments, anglers would learn many a lesson as to the biting of fish, and perhaps as to many other matters which belong to the art of angling. I would not, however, counsel such experiments being made FISHING AS A FINE ART. 123 before the general public, for in the first place they would not care much about them, and in the second their visible presence might interfere to a great extent with the natural action (if I may so express it) of the fish. Only anglers should be allowed to witness them, and they should be concealed behind screens with “ peep-holes,”’ so that the fish, which at the best live a semi-artificial life in the tanks, should have every chance of giving information and suggesting angling expedients without their attention being distracted. But perhaps the best way of observing the habits of fish would be to encase oneself in a diver’s dress and descend into some good “ swim,” say on the Thames, and lying down with some arrangements to partially hide your recumbent figure, to take stock of the barbel and other denizens of the deep, as ground-bait is thrown in and an angler fishes the swim in various styles. I have thought too, that it would not be very difficult to fit a glass window in a clay bank well chosen hard by a suitable bit of water, and then for the observer, from an approach in the bank behind to make notes on the fish and the experi- ments of anglers. Or again, a water-tight box with windows in it, and a tube to supply air, might be utilized, and it might be so constructed as not to appear anything very unnatural when let down into the water with the observer in it. Once more I must say it is time to conclude this “ Note :” and I will doso, by again reminding the young angler who would become an artist, that though it is necessary for him to read instructional books on angling, and make his own experiments in the art, he should never miss an opportunity of taking a personal and practical lesson from an artist. NOTE V. THE TROUT. (Salmo Fario.) “ The wary Trout that thrives against the stream.” FRANCES QuARLES (1592—1644). “ The Trout by Nature mark’d with many a crimson spot, As though she curious were in him above the rest, And of fresh-water fish, did note him for the best.” Micwatet Drayton. “ Swift Trouts, diversified with crimson stains.’—POPE. “ So shall the glory of the stream be thine, The spotted trophies of the tapering line.” Iv may be asked why in “ Notes on Fish and Fishing,” which might reasonably be supposed to deal with all British fish that are the objects of the angler’s pursuit, the salmon does not hold the first place and take up the greatest space of all. Why the Play of Hamlet with the part of the Prince of Denmark omitted? The simple answer is that this little volume is only what it is called — Notes,” and a kind of chit-chat about Fishermen and THE TROUT. 125 Fish of the ordinary kind. The Salmon, though happily in a gastronomic point of view he is an ordinary fish in his season, having by judicious legislation been brought down at times to as little as a shilling per lb., and even less for retail purchasers, is in his piscatorial aspect an extraordinary fish, as the Salmon fisherman is a sportsman of an almost distinct species from that of ordinary anglers, fly fishermen included. Moreover, to deal satis- factorily with the Salmon and Salmon fishing would be impossible even in a very long chapter. The subject requires a book to itself, and perhaps some day I may attempt such a book, combining with Salmon and Salmon fishing a series of disquisitions on the different kinds of trout and trout fishing, which I can only cursorily allude to in the present Note, devoted as it must almost neces- sarily be to our Common River Trout. The Salmon, Salmo salar, the “‘ Prince of Fishes,” is the representative of the Royal Family of the Salmonide, the most distinctive feature of which ichthyologically is the second dorsal fin, just above the tail, of an adipose or fatty character, and entirely destitute of fin rays. The Trouts, which are very widely distributed, being found even within the Arctic circle, all belong to this family, which is one of the families ranging under the Order of the Malacopterygit or “ soft-finned ”’ fish. The Salmonide with which we have to do may be divided into three species—(1) The Migratory species, i.e. the “sea-going ” Trouts; 2, the Non-migratory; and 3, the Charrs. Of the last-named, of which five or more distinct varieties are recognized by naturalists as found in British waters, it is only necessary to say that in conse- quence of their habits and comparative scarcity they do 126 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. not often find their way into the angler’s creel, at least in any considerable number. They are best known in a form they often ultimately take, namely that of “ potted charr,” of which, by the way, potted “thunny” is an admirable imitation. They are a prettily marked fish, orange and red being the chief elements in their colouring. The Migratory species, whose colouring is more or less silvery, is represented by the Salmon, Salmo salar, by the Bull Trout, Salmo eriow, called also the Grey Trout and Sewin, and by the Sea or Salmon-Trout, Salmo trutia, called also the White Trout. The Non-migratory species is distinguished by golden or yellow hues, espe- cially on the lower part of the body, and includes the Common Trout, Salmo fario, the Great Lake Trout, Salmo feroz, the Lochleven Trout, Salmo levenensis, and according to some naturalists the Gillaroo Trout, so called from the structural arrangements of the coats of the stomach, which resemble the formation of the gizzard of the bird known as the Gillaroo. I do not of course mean that these varieties of trout are only to be distin- guished from one another by their colouring ; for they are distinguished also by the position of their teeth, the shape of their tail fins, their general conformation and other physical characteristics, with which it will take the young angler and ichthyologist some time to acquaint himself, while his difficulties will be increased by the fact that several of the above-named fish are called by different names in different localities, in some cases the names being actually interchanged. For information as to the various modes of capture of the different species of trout just mentioned, and as to the localities, chiefly in Scotland and Ireland, where they are THE TROUT. 127 to be found, I can only.refer my readers to such standard works as those of Steward, Stoddard, Blakey, Pennell, Francis, and others, not forgetting the numbers of the Fisherman’s Magazine ;—and for special information as to the different stations for Trout fishing in Scotland I cannot do better than recommend Mr. Watson Lyall’s Sports- man’s Guide, to be obtained at almost any bookseller’s and bookstall in the United Kingdom. My special business is with our Common Trout. The Common Trout, Salmo farto—a member, as I have said, of the yellow or golden tribe, called also the Common Brown Trout (“to make confusion worse con- founded ’’)—is familiarly known to most anglers. We might almost call it the English Trout, for in English waters is it most abundant, though well distributed over Scotland and Ireland and most continental countries. There is hardly a county in England without its trout stream ; but the waters of Hampshire, Devonshire, Derby- shire, and the five Northern counties bear off the palm. But though the Common Trout is a distinct species of trout, and by naturalists to be distinguished easily enough from the other species above mentioned, it is a remarkable fact that the trout in one river differ very considerably in form and colouring from the trout in another. Indced I might almost go as faras to say that no two rivers produce trout shaped and marked alike. Every river seems to have its own “breed” of trout, though the difference in colouring is in many instances to be ac- counted for by the difference in the geological character of the beds of rivers, the aquatic vegetation, and the food most plentifully supplied to the fish. Ichthyologically, the Common Trout is an interesting 128 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. fish. Unlike our other fresh-water fish, is spawns in the winter months, and thus follows the habits of the salmon, making its way into shallow water and routing up the gravel to cover the ova. The majority of trout pro- bably only spawn in alternate years. A trout is a long- lived fish, and there are authenticated instances of its living over twenty years. In the back-yard of a farm- house at the head of Chapel-le-Dale, Yorkshire, I saw several trout in a little pool which issued from a rock, and was told that they had been there nearly twenty years. They spent most of their time in the dark under the rock, but came out into the light directly food was thrown to them. ‘The trout in most rivers is of slow growth ; and it is a remarkable fact, which I have not yet heard satisfactorily explained, that in many rivers the great majority of trout are of one size within an ounce or two. There seem to be no little and no big ones. Order and discipline evidently reign supreme in the community of river trout, though their chief law seems to be “ Might is right.” The biggest fish have the choice of haunts, which they rigidly stick to; and when any number of fish are lying near one another, the rule is in everything, sentores priores—< the biggest first.” Trout pair in the summer, and are credited with being loving husbands and wives, and evincing the utmost solicitude for each other’s welfare ; at least in Italian streams, as an Italian author bears witness in his Loves of the Fishes. Our ordinary river trout do not generally attain any great size. In many waters, notably in the small streams of Devonshire and Wales, they are reckoned only by ounces, a fish of six or eight ounces being considered a monster. The limit of weight in some rivers is about two THE TROUT. 129 pounds, but in others, the Hampshire rivers for instance, three and four-pound fish are frequently caught. Perhaps six pounds might be said to be the greatest weight attained by common river trout, I mean by those which really fre- quent the rivers, for out of large ponds and lakes fed by running water, true common river or Brown Trout have been taken of between twelve and fourteen pounds. And this remark leads me at once to make some jottings in reference to a trout about which I own I am specially enthusiastic, I mean the “Thames Trout.” He is the “ Prince of Trout ;” and he is “one by himself,” as the country folk say. He differs from all other kinds of trout. He is not of any distinctive species yet recog- nized by naturalists, yet he is very distinctive. He is not of the family of the Great Lake Trout, Salmo ferox ; nor is he a Bull Trout, Salmo eriox; nor a White or Sea Trout, Salmo trutia. Ichthyologically he is certainly a Brown or Common Trout, Salmo fario, but truly an uncommon Common Trout. Now Brown Trout, as I have said, though all of one family, vary very much according to the water they inhabit, and differ one from another in shape and colouring, in texture of flesh and taste. Yet they are all Brown or Common Trout. But the Thames Trout, by which I mean not the varieties of trout which have been very properly put into the Thames of late years, imported from the High Wycombe stream and elsewhere, but the veritable Thames trout, the “real original,” known to generations of anglers back to the time of Walton, is entitled to rank by himself, for he really is a very distinctive fish, sui generis in form, colouring, and, it may be added, habits; while the size he reaches places him outside the ordinary varieties of common trout. It K 130 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. might almost be said that the weight of a real Thames trout begins where that of an ordinary river trout ends; and certainly it is very strange that seldom is a real Thames trout caught under three pounds. Like some men and women, of whom it is difficult to realize the fact that they were once babies and afterwards children tod- dling about “on their own hook,” Thames trout seem always to be more or lessat maturity. It is not easy to fix a limit of size to these grand fish, but they have been taken by fair angling up to 15 lbs. or 16 lbs. Yarrell mentions one of 15 lbs. caught on the 21st of March, 1835; and the one in a case at the well-known hostelry close by Marlow Weir must have been at least 16 lbs. On May 31, 1834, a 141b. fish was caught by Lieut.-General Sir Samuel Hawker, near Richmond. In October, 1874, one of 114]bs. was picked up dead near Ditton, and he would certainly have weighed 16 lbs. if he had been in condition. Some years before that, about 1862, one was found dead at Weybridge weighing over 23 lbs., though out of condition, his length being 40 inches and his deepest girth 22. Mr. Frank Buckland seems to doubt whether this really was a veritable Thames trout ; however, it looked very like one, though its colour- ing had gone to a great extent, and its fan-like tail was more suggestive of a trout than of a salmon. But be this as it may, Thames trout will certainly grow to some- thing like 20 lbs., though, as old age creeps on them, their nozzles, especially the under jaw, grow malformed like those of kelts, and gradually turning up over the upper one render them less and less able to catch their baits and eat them. Thus they fall away, and at last die of sheer starvation, Still, it is not often that a fish over 12 lbs. is THE TROUT. 131 taken, but the season will yield several from that weight ranging down to 6 lbs. And what a splendid fish is one of these “ speckled beauties!” I hold that a well-conditioned fish of this class is one of the most beautiful objects in animated nature. His symmetry and his colouring are unexcep- tionable. He is more beautiful both in form and colour than the most beautiful salmon that ever ran up fresh from the sea, and when contemplated by his captor im- mediately on being “ banked” is a richer feast for the eyes than the prettiest Salmo salar that Hampshire Avon, Severn, Tay, Tyne, Thurso, or Shannon ever produced. Salmo fario of the Thames v. Salmo salar all the world over; the latter charmingly symmetrical, and silvery as you will, and beyond compare more beautiful than all sil- very fishes; but the former resplendent with all the hues of the rainbow, and others to boot ; yet not a mere gaudy creature like the brilliant fish of the Mediterranean, but with a harmony of bright colours, which subdue but do not ‘extinguish one another, and such as no artist could have conceived and few can imitate. In addition, moreover, to his beautiful symmetry and colouring, he gives one from his build the very idea of a strong fish—Tennyson’s “lusty ” trout— a very ideal of a fishy Apollo and Her- cules combined. Gastronomically he is as good as outwardly he is beauti- ful. He is pink as any salmon, and when cooked breaks into flakes like a salmon, and wich as much “ custard”’ between them; and your gourmet will tell you that he has a more exquisitely “ gamey” flavour than the best Christ- church crimped salmon has ever yet developed. Many recipes have been given for cooking him, some of which K 2 132 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. may be found in quaint Thomas Barker’s Angler’s De- light of 1657, and all kinds of sauces, compounded of almost every ingredient, have been recommended. Butit is high treason to subject such a fish to the indignity of. condiments and combinations such as these. It suffices to boil him simply, with a little salt in the water, or better still to crimp him and broil in paper in simple cutlet form. But far better still not to eat him at all. He is altogether too grand a fish for the pot. If you are fortunate enough to capture a grand Thames trout, hand him over to a cunning taxidermist, who will put him in a case for you, and you will have something to be proud of, and “a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.” Any future ones which fall to your lot serve in the same way, and send them as pre- sents to yourfriends. The nearest relatives to the Thames trout are the large Colne trout, and those of other tribu- taries of the Thames, and they may be called first cousins, while those of the Lea seem second cousins. The best districts for Thames trout are those of Hampton, Chertsey, Laleham and Penton Hook, Windsor, Maidenhead, and Marlow. And what a pity it is that there are not more Thames trout to be taken by ardent fishermen, considering how beautiful and good they are! Can anything be done to increase the supply? Well, a good deal has been done in the way of stecking the Thames with small trout from the breeding ponds at Sunbury and importations from other rivers ; but, as has been said, these additions have not all been veritable Thames trout, and the majority seem to be either destroyed by the jack or are washed away from want of proper “hovers.” The strange part of the busi- ness is that the stock of veritable Thames trout does not THE TROUT. 133 seem to vary much from one year to another, though the numbers actually captured during the trout season—i.e. from the beginning of April till the 10th of September—do vary. It would almost secm that some recondite law is at work which keeps down, ata certain low average, the veri- table Thames farios. Taking one year with another, perhaps not more than a hundred, sometimes not so many, fish are captured in the season between Teddington and Oxford ; and this in round numbers does not give one fish to each mile of water, and probably there is not an average of four fish, say over 3 lbs. each, disporting themselves per mile for that distance. It may be asked, therefore, whether it is worth while to try for Thames trout at all? Is the game worth the candle? The ardent fisherman will certainly say—yes, by all means; for he knows that the slayer of a large Thames trout at once becomes a piscatorial celebrity. But it is nob every one who can pursue Thames trout-fishing, for it involves time and money; and it is not every one who can get a Thames trout, never mind what time and trouble he expend. Still there are many anglers who specially affect Thames trout-fishing. The lottery which in a certain sense success is, and the skill required in this kind of fishing, are to them among its chief charms. To spin properly for your quarry you must be an adept at the art, and you often have to practise it under great difficulties—as, for instance, when the only available van- tage-ground for fishing a weir is from a narrow weir-beam, with the water rushing and thundering beneath your feet like any Cataract of Lodore. It is a sight worth seeing to watch a Thames puntsman fish a weir from this coign of vantage, and gather his line in the palm of his left hand 134 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. after each cast. Your bait, be it gudgeon, bleak, small dace, or large minnow, must spin with mathematical correctness, or it has no charms for a Thames trout, and there is not one angler out of twenty who can put his bait on correctly, whatever be the style of flight he uses. And even granted that you are an adept in the art, and most patient and persevering, you may not meet your reward for many days. Tf I remember rightly Mr. Alfred, the well-known fishing- tackle maker of Moorgate Street, about twenty years ago took twelve good trout in nine days’ spinning between Chertsey and Walton, a feat never eclipsed and rarely approached in the annals of Thames trout-fishing. On an average [should say that a fisherman does not get a Thames trout under six days’ spinning. The angler prizes above all things a tussle with a Thames trout. He can afford to wait days—nay weeks for ib, for when it does come it is a case of Greek meeting Greek. The sensation of killing a salmon is a grand one, but not to be compared with that of capturing a large Thames trout. There is really inore skill in attaching one of these farios than a salar to your rod and line, and when you have attached one, it is sport indeed. Perhaps the first rush or two of a salmon is more impetuous than that of a Thames trout, in comparing two fish of equal weight, but the Thames trout has more runs in him than the salmon. He has “ staying powers”? of the first order, and is as full of expedients to save his lifeas any Salmo salar. There is no doubt about the “running” of a Thames trout. It is a fierce rush he makes at your bait when he has made up his mind to rush at all. As soon as he has struck the fight commences. He— Flies aloft and flounces round the pool.” THE TROUT. 185 Nec mora nec requies for either of you. If a term may be borrowed from the hunting-field, it is “a sharp burst.”” Let the fisherman poet, Gay, for a moment describe the contest, his verse applying to a large Thames trout equally well as it does to a salmon :— “Soon in smart pain he feels his dire mistake, Lashes the wave and beats the foamy lake ; With sudden rage he now aloft appears, And in his eye convulsive anguish bears ; And now again, impatient of the wound, He rolls and writhes his straining body round; Then headlong shoots beneath the dashing tide, The trembling fins the boiling wave divide. Now hope exalts the fisher’s beating heart, Now he turns pale and fears his dubious art ; He views the trembling fish with longing eyes, While the line stretches with th’ unwieldy prize ; Each motion humours with his steady hands, And the slight line the mighty bulk commands ; Till tired at Jast, despoil’d of all his strength, The game athwart the stream unfolds his length—” And so on, till safely landed he— “ Stretches his quivering fins, and gasping dies.” But oh, the disappointment at losing your fish when you have battled with him awhile, full of hope and nigh ‘unto victory. It not unfrequently happens that Thames trout do get away after being hooked, and this probably arises from the traditional use of some four or five triangles of hooks, and those, too, of too small asize, instead of one triangle, or at most two, in accordance with the most reasonable teaching of that Master of Arts in spinning, Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell. Possibly hardly a 136 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Thames trout gets through a season without being pricked; and it must surely require, in the case of such a wary and intelligent fish, all the close time from Septem- ber 10th to April for him to forget past experiences of mathematically spinning baits. Another disappointment is that of trout “running short” and only touching the tail of your bait; and yet another to which the spinner for Thames trout is constantly subjected, especially at the beginning of the season, viz., hooking jack, chub, and barbel, and perhaps after a good bit of fighting finding he has not only not got a trout, but a fish which is legally out of season, and which he must return to the water. The most skilful, however, are not often taken in, for they know partly by the strike and partly by the “action” of the fish afterwards whether it be a trout or not. Another way of fishing for Thames trout is by live bait- ing, as for jack. Some object to this as unsportsmanlike ; but my experience is that it is as difficult to take a fish by this means as by spinning. I hold, therefore, live bait- ing is quite legitimate. Perhaps the best advice to one contemplating Thames trout-fishing is—‘‘ Don’t.” Let us, however, suppose our spinner successful, and that he has taken a six, eight, ten or twelve pounder, or more than one, as sometimes occurs. Where is then a prouder or happier man in all creation? His deeds will be spoken of far and wide. The news of the take travels in all directions, along the river banks. Volitat per ora virum. He is a hero, “The man that killed a — pound trout at ——.” He is immortalized in the angling columns of many journals. Skill and perseverance have had their reward, and from an THE TROUT. 187 angling point of view he can say, “I have not lived in vain!” You may catch the smaller Thames trout and those which have been imported into the river with the artificial fly, but seldom a large Thames trout. These are, how- ever, occasionally taken with red palmers, May flies, and early in the season with the large stone fly. Grilse and even Salmon flies have sometimes been used with success. But your Thames trout proper is not much of a fly-eater. His favourite food is “small fry,” of which he gets abundance and on which he gets fat. And now back again to the Common Brown Trout. And whence the name “Trout”? The word has always sounded to me asa “full round” word; suggestive of a good sound fish; but this must be mere fancy. Izaak Walton remarks that Gesner says it is “of a German Offspring.” What German word, however, it can be con- nected with I do not know. The ordinary German for “ trout’? is “ forelle.” The distinguishing letters of our word are evidently tru, as seen in the Anplo-Saxon truht; and these are found in several languages, e.g.in the French truite, the Italian trota and Spanish trucha. The late Latin word is trutta, from the older word tructa, a glutton, which is the Greek troctes (tp@«rns), “a glutton,” and also “a sea fish with sharp teeth,” mentioned by Ailian. And thus we get our word “ trout,” originally from the Greek trogo (tpaya) , to “ gnaw” or “eat.” So after all the pretty-sounding word “trout” really means something equivalent to a “‘ oreedy devourer ;” and taking all things into considera- tion, this is no great libel on our fario. My little book, as I have said in the preface, is not an 138 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. ambitious one; nor is it intended to supply the place of Guides, Instructors, and Vade Mecums. It is what is called simply “ Notes,” and the “ Notes” on the different fish of our waters are only “jottings ” etymological, ichthyologi- cal, piscatorial, or, to keep up the Greek terminology, halieutical, and gastronomical ; and these thrown together without much definite order. I cannot, therefore, under- take to give a list of the trout rivers in the United King- dom, their seasons and peculiarities, and much less a list of the flies which by tradition and experience are said to be best for each. All this and much more can only be gathered from such books as I have mentioned at the beginning of this note, to which I may add Mr. Francis’s Book on Angling, which has very recently and most deservedly entered on another edition, Hofland’s British Angler’s Manual, which will never be out of date, Rooper’s Thames and Tweed, Ronald’s Fly-Fisher’s Entomology, and Cutliffe’s Trout-fishing in Rapid Streams. But all anglers, unless they are well acquainted with the water they are about to fish, should endeavour to gain personal information from their friends or others about it. Information thus gained should supplement all book knowledge, and would often prevent a fruitless expedition. Fly-fishing—i.e. whipping the stream with an artificial fly is, I need hardly say, the most orthodox way of fishing for the common trout. It is also the most artistic. It is also the most enjoyable. It would be difficult to say what pursuit, sport, or pastime can yield such genuine pleasure as a day’s fly-fishing along a pretty river does to the angler who has the accomplishments and tastes I have credited to him: say along the Teign, the Dart, the THE TROUT. 139 Barle, the Exe, in the far land of the West, the land of red cattle and clotted cream, of junkets and cider, of meadows and moorland, of hills and dales and purling streams, the very paradise of birds, ferns, and wild flowers. I know these Devonshire rivers well, [ may say every stream in the country; and the humblest meadow brook is not without its charms, or without its trout. Such a humble brook has Carl Waring recently described in the American Forest and Stream, in the following pretty stanzas :— “You see it first near the dusty road, Where the farmer stops with his heavy load At the foot of a weary hill ; There the mossy trough it overflows, Then away with a leap and a laugh it goes At its own sweet, wandering will. “ Tt flows through an orchard gnarl’d and old, Where in spring the dainty buds unfold Their petals pink and white ; The apple blossoms so sweet and pure, The streamlet’s smiles and songs allure, To float off on the ripples bright. “Tt winds through the meadow scarcely seen, For o’er it the flowers and grasses lean To salute its smiling face ; And thus, half-hidden, it ripples along, The whole way singing its summer song, Making glad each arid plave, “ Just there, where the water dark and cool Lingers a moment in yonder pool, The dainty trout are at play ; And now and then one leaps in sight, With sides aglow in the golden light Of the long, sweet summer day. 140 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “Oh back to their shelves those books consign, And look to your rod and reel and line, Make fast the feather’d hook ! Then away from the town, with its hum of life, Where the air with worry and work is rife, To the charms of the meadow brook.” Yes—“ Away from the town.” Those best know the joys of a fly-fishing holiday, who are perforce-- “ Long in populous cities pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air,” and when their holiday time comes hie them far away from the “ Fumum et opes, strepitumque Rome,” whether their Rome be London, Birmingham, Manchester, or some populous place taken cognizance of by that most statistical of public functionaries, the Registrar-General. What a blessing itis that a few hours’ journey will land us in almostany direction, north, south, east, or west, by the banks of the trout stream we have fixed on; and what a blessing it is that thousands in the course of a year can thus find recreation, and recruit both body and mind in the innocent amusement of fly-fishing. As to the Art of Fly-fishing, more has been said and written on this particular branch of sport than on any other; and none have given rise to more ‘vexed ques- tions” than this. The proverbial differing of doctors is as nothing to the differing of fly-fishers, both as regards theory and practice. Fly-fishing may almost be described as an art without any fundamental rules; I mean rules THE TROUT. 141 to which all will give adherence. And this, perhaps, is one of its charms; for though you may be well stored with the precepts of professors, their precepts vary so much that you have the pleasure of selecting which you shall follow or trying them all by turns. I shall only attempt to jot down, ina higgledy-piggledy way, a few observations on fly-fishing for trout, based on my own experience, throwing them partially into the form of advice to “ young” anglers, for I will not dare to counsel old ones. If there is no finality, as I have suggested there is not, in the art of angling generally, there certainly is not in this branch of it. Trout, even more than other fish, have become “ educated,” and their capture is be- coming more and more difficult every year. The individual experience, therefore, of every fisherman, presuming of course that he has studied his art and practised it assidu- ously, is a contribution to the general stock, even though he may have nothing actually new to suggest. As to tackle. A cheap fly rod, whether a single or double-handed one, is a delusion and snare. Always buy of a first-rate maker. Lightness, i.e. as far as is consistent with strength, is a great consideration in arod, as whipping a stream is a far greater physical labour than many persons would suppose. There has been a long controversy as to the amount of pliancy and stiffness fly rods should possess, some persons advocating very pliant rods, others stiff ones, i.e. comparatively stiff. You will do well, I think, to use a medium one. You have greater command over your fly, especially in windy weather, with a stiff one, but fewer fish are lost when playing them with a pliant one. The “happy mean,” therefore, is the best. 142 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Let your line taper at both ends, so that when you have to some extent worn away one end you can reverse the line on your winch and utilize the other. Notwithstanding the general consensus of condemnation of multiplying winches, I am for multipliers. They are a great comfort when you are fishing up stream, and espe- cially when you fish heads down. I know they are apt to get out of order, at least ordinary ones are, but some are made now with extra wheels, and, though in one sense more complex, so arranged that a “ dead lock” is next to impossible, as I have noted on page 109. None but the best gut, whether whole or drawn, should ever be used for collars. I don’t believe in stained gut, unless the water is very discoloured. It must be remembered that the fish are looking upwards, with the light and the sky for a background. It would be quite another matter if they were looking down into the water on your collar. What shall I say of flies? Itis one of the most difficult things in the world to say or write a little when there is much which can be written or said. It would take a dozen or twenty pages even briefly to mention the various views which have been advanced. They range from the theories that almost go as far as to maintain that a different fly is required for every day in the year and almost for every hour in every day, to the simple reduction of the number to three, or at most half a dozen flies as all that are necessary all the year round. Here again I think the old saying, medio tutissimus rbis, 18 applicable. To load yourself with swarms of flies tied up in huge bunches in your fly-book is folly. There are scores of flies made which might be utterly abolished. Still I do not think the ordi- THE TROUT. 143 nary fly fisherman would generally meet with a fair share of success if he limited himself to the very meagre supply Mr. Pennell would allow him, or even the slightly-enlarged list of Mr. Stewart. Mr. Francis Francis has, in my opinion, hit the happy mean. The young angler cannot do better than thoroughly study that part of Mr. Francis’ book relative to flies and fly-fishing. I see in some of the London tackle-shops fly-books containing the thirty-two varieties of flies recommended by him, with the name of the fly opposite its compartment, and a few remarks on it, the flies also running consecutively according to their mouths. As a rule the old acknowledged flies, such as the palmers, the duns, the spinners, the February red, the March brown, the alder, the stone, the sand fly, and others, with the names of which the young fly-fisherman soon be- comes familiar, will kill, if anything in the way of a fly will. The list of flies given by Walton’s collaborateur, Cotton, will be found to comprise most of the best killers of the present day. At the same time “ fancy” flies are not to be neglected. They will often do execution when the orthodox flies fail. Nor, again, are “local” flies, as I may call them, to be despised. Though you may have taken to your fishing- ground a very cloud of insects in your well-stocked book, tied by some of the best hands in London, and “ warranted to kill” in all waters and under any circumstances, do not despise local knowledge and practice. Rather seek out some enthusiastic brother fly-fisher m the neighbourhood ; aud as there is a kind of freemasonry among the angling craft he will give you a hint or two worth having—the local doctor, or the parson, or some less reputable character, 144 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. the amateur poacher, but a veritable sportsman, who ties his own flies and will often imitate some creature he sees on the water at a moment’s notice. You can soon hear of him, and, I fear, often find him at one of the hostelries of the district. Beopenwith him. Tell him you want a hint or two. Do not forget that he is not averse to “ refresh- ment.” Suggest humbly that you would feel honoured with his company on the morrow to carry your creel and mackintosh, &c., and you will probably have secured a friend, philosopher, and guide, who will put you up toa thing or two, and conduce to filling your basket. The following, I think, is a sound principle. In compa- ratively smooth water your artificial fly should be as good an imitation of nature as possible, for the fish take it be- lieving it to be a real fly. It is otherwise in rapid streams, or parts of streams, where the fish have not so much oppor- tunity of observation or time to think. There they dart at your lure simply because they hope it is ‘something to eat.” This another. Use a dark fly for dark waters and a bright fly for bright waters, notwithstanding the most apparently reasonable arguments to be adduced per contra. Remember there is a great deal in the size of your flies. You must learn beforehand the peculiar gastronomic fancy of the fish in the stream you contemplate fishing. Fish of 4 lbs. take a tiny gnat on a tiny hook in some of the Hampshire waters, while in many streams trout no larger than your middle finger insist on having a large fat hackle fly fit fora 5lb. chub. Read “Stoddart” on the size of flies. I am a firm believer in his views on this point. Generally, as the water in a river lowers and clears, decrease the size of your flies. When the water begins to rise trout seldom take the fly well. They seem alarmed. THE TROUT. 145 I believe that the colour of flies, generally speaking, is of more importance than their form, though I am puzzled somewhat when I reflect that a fish viewing a fly from beneath has a light background, and that consequently (as one might think) the under part of the fly would present but little actual colour to him. A gentle or even small strip of white kid glove put on the bend of the fly-hook will induce trout to rise when nothing else will. When trout ate “ glutted” with some natural fly, say the May fly, a purely “ fancy” artificial fly will often get a rise out of them, just as something new or fanciful will excite the jaded appetite of an alderman. Here are some more miscellaneous memoranda, and I must confess very disjointed. Let your habiliments be of sober though rather lightish grey, with cap or flexible wideawake to match, and your waterproof, which you may want occasionally, also grey, and well ventilated. The grey tweed waterproofs, made by George Cording (son of the “ Original” Cording), 231, Strand and 125, Regent Street, are the best I know of. Use wading boots or stockings, otherwise you lay up a stock of rheumatism for future days. The “ porpoise- hide” fishing-boots, made by Frank Porter, of 40, Lud- gate Hill, are of admirable material and workmanship, and very moderate in price. Let your shoes, or water- proof boots, be studded with large nails, but not very close together, for masses of iron, instead of preventing, facilitate slipping. Always wade if you can, and when you cannot, crouch, stoop, and crawl as best you may, and hide yourself be- hind bushes, trees, rising ground, &c., whenever possible. L 146 NOTES ON FISI AND FISHING. All the above, for this simple reason, that the trout, the most quicksighted of fish, may not see you more than you can help; for remember that according to the teaching of Mr. Ronalds (referred to in the Note on Ichthyology), your figure, and even the part of it which you sometimes fancy is hidden, is projected by refraction far up above the fish’s line of sight. Hence, also, fish wp stream when you can rather than down. Moreover, as trout lie with their heads up stream, and cannot see behind them, you can get pretty near them, and so use a short line, which of course you can throw to a desired spot with much greater accuracy than a long one. There have been many literary battles over the up stream and down stream theories of fishing. The wp stream fishing is the most difficult in consequence of your collar and line having an unpleasant tendency to make their way very quietly to your feet ; but there can be no doubt about its being the right practice. A good fisherman working up stream will kill nearly two fish to every one killed by a good fisherman working down. Sometimes the wind and other circum- stances make it impossible to fish up: then, of course, nothing remains but to fish down. As you come to each reach of a stream, make your dis- positions thoughtfully, as a general would, how best to work it—mark the most likely spots for your fish to lie, and determine how they are best fished. This done, fish the water nearest to you first, and so on till you have thoroughly searched the whole. Remember that a very shallow spot will hold a big fish. Watch your line and collar very carefully, for in rapid streams—such, for instance, as they mostly are in Devon- shire—your fly will very often be under water when taken, THE TROUT. 147 and consequently you will not see your fish “ rise.’ Your hand must be as quick as your eye, I might say your intuition, when your fly is taken; for unless hooked your trout ejects fur and feathers in a moment of time. Remember that early in the year trout generally lie in the quietest part of the water, for though in early streams they are “in season” in February and March, they have not yet recovered their full strength after spawning. Two flies are quite enough to use, your “ stretcher ” or tail fly, and one “ drop” or “bob” fly. In rapid streams try and learn to use the latter in spots where you cannot get your former comfortably, or at least in a style to attract fish. Often it is a most excellent plan to cast your collar or tail fly on a stone in the river, and then by gradually tightening your line let your “drop” fly search the eddy at the back. Do not use a longer line than you can help, and do not pay out line to reach a given spot unless absolutely necessary ; rather wade or crawl nearer. When you see a fish rise, cast your fly as near as pos- sible into the centre of the wavy circle. If that fails cast a foot or two higher up the stream. So too, after a fish has risen at your fly and missed it. A “wet” fly early in the season, a “dry” fly later on. Need I say that it is of the utmost importance to throw “lightly,” and to take care that your “ stretcher” alights on the water before your “ droppers” ? “ Be mindful, aye, your fly to throw Light as falls the flaky snow.” The young aspirant to fly-fishing should practise assi- duously and patiently, throwing his fly at a mark on a L2 148 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. grass-plot, and be “entered” at dace or bleak before he essays to deceive Salmo fario. Try and make your artificial fly act on the water as a natural fly would act. As the poet tells you,— “Upon the watery surface let it glide, With natural motion from your hand supplied ; Against the stream now gently let it play, Now in the rapid eddy float away,” but as little “against stream’? work as possible, for drawing a fly against stream causes the hackle and even feather to lie close to the body. When a fish rises, strike quickly and decisively, and up with the point of your rod directly. And let this be a golden rule—“ Keep it up” while you play your fish. If once you let the strain come straight to your winch you lose a good fish to a certainty. The only possible contin- gency which justifies the lowering of the point of the rod is when a fish throws himself clean out of water, as a good fish often will to the height of two feet or more. As you have a strain on him, your rod suddenly straightens when he leaps, and you must drop the point as he falls back into the water. But be on him again the moment he touches it. Never let your fish see your landing-net till he is tired out, and never let it touch him till you have got it well under him. The best time of the day for fly-fishing is as a rule from eight till noon, and from about five or six p.m. till what may be called the “evening fishing” time, at least in the summer and early autumn months. If I were asked to name the two best hours of the day I should say from nine to eleven. But of course the fish in different rivers have to a great extent different habits; and trout THE TROUT. 149 in rapid streams are always more or less on the feed, as they have a difficulty in securing flies and other food; whereas in quiet streams and quiet parts of streams they seem to feed more regularly and at stated intervals, and rest for a time after meals. The larger the fish the more regularly he feeds and rests after feeding, After a bright, hot summer’s day evening fishing often produces good sport, and by evening fishing I mean after dusk till you can no longer see to fish comfortably. The red, and black palmer, with silver twist, the coachman, and white moth are the recognized flies for this crepuscu- lar business. It must not be forgotten, however, that fishing after sunset is considered in most cases, contra bonos mores. I might “ memorandumize” on in this style ad infinitum, so much is there to say on fly-fishing for trout. But the style is not satisfactory to me, and it may not be to my readers, for, as I have before observed, nothing short of a treatise on the subject can satisfactorily deal with it. And even a long treatise would not exhaust it. Hvery river in the United Kingdom would almost require a chapter to itself. And after all said and done, the know- ledge and art of the most consummate fisherman frequently avail him nothing; and to make matters worse he is utterly at a loss to account for the fish refusing to rise. The capriciousness of trout as to rising is most extra- ordinary. A fisherman may begin his work under the idea that if he had had the ordering of the weather and the state of the water, he could not have ordered for the better. He makes a certainty of a full creel. But for some unaccountable reason not a fish will move! Par parenthése, I am strongly of opinion that electric currents 150 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. passing through the earth affect fish more than is generally supposed. On another occasion everything seems against him to begin with, but he gets as many fish as he can carry ! Let me mention a striking instance of the latter experience and of the strange caprice of trout. On an April morning some years ago a friend and myself started on foot from Wells to fish the water above the Mill not far from Wokey Hole in the Mendip Hills. It was very cold, and we had only just got out of the city when a driving snow-storm nearly blinded us. Before we got to Wokey we ex- perienced two more, and on each occasion we debated whether it were worth while to proceed. But the storms were of brief duration, the sun was soon out again, and hope, which “springs eternal” in the angler’s breast, predominated over fear. Another and worse storm just as we got to the water almost determined us to return to Wells. However, hoping against hope, we put our rods together, and began casting with “ kill-devils”’ (double red palmers with two hooks) as stretchers and black palmers as droppers. Not a fish was moving, nor could we move one for the half-hour we whipped the water. It was now, as we thought, utterly hopeless to persevere. We would pack up and at once make tracks homewards ; when suddenly another snow-storm was on us. Why I made another cast under such circumstances I hardly know, but I did, and at once a fish was securely attached to my “kill-devil.” But surely it was an accident! The fish could never have intended it! Itwould be meaning- less to cast again in a snow-storm! But before I had time to come to a conclusion, my friend had a fish on; and it was at once evident that a change had come over the spirit of the dreams of the Wokey trout. They were THE TROUT. 151 rising in all directions. At what, I cannot for the life of me say, unless it were at a shower of flies which came down with the snow, or perhaps they mistook the snow-: flakes for white moths! We had a fish at almost every cast, sometimes two, as long as the snow-storm lasted ; but when it ceased, the fish at once ceased rising. To make a long story short, there was a succession of brief snow-storms all the day. During their continuance, the fish rose fast and furiously ; in the intervals between them not a fish would rise. If I were to give the numbers of the fish we caught, I might lay myself open to the charge of exaggeration, which is sometimes brought against the angling community; suffice it to say, that never before and never since have I bad a hand in catching such a dish of fish; rather I should say “dishes,” for on our return to Wells almost every dish on the establishment had to be requisitioned in order that we might fully display our take. There was hardly a fish below } lb., the average was 1 lb., and several scaled 141b. and over. A remarkable instance, though only another out of very many I could give, of what seems the caprice of trout in rising, came under my notice when fishing the Hxe about four miles above Tiverton. I had been diligently whipping from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m., trying a variety of flies and a variety of miscellaneous devices in casting and working my cast; but not a fish had I moved, nor had I seen above half a dozen rises; when suddenly the stretch of water I was on became literally alive with fish rising. I forget the particular flies I had on my cast, but I know that the fish seemed quite indifferent as to which they took, and I basketed them almost as fast as I did the Wokey trout in the snow-storms. But in about half an 152 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. hour—presto! all is quiet, and not a fish is moving! Nor did the trout move again that day, though I patiently hung about the river till nightfall, hoping for another such half-hour as I had between 2 and 3 p.m. On making special inquiry afterwards of other fishermen on the river the same day, I ascertained that the same phenomenon presented it- self to all of them, and as nearly as possible at the time men- tioned, and that it extended along the river for at least six miles above and six miles below Tiverton. How is such a fact to be accounted for ? What led to this sudden impulse, which affected the whole community of trout in a certain way along twelve miles of river for only a few minutes, so to speak, out of the whole day? Does the theory of electric currents passing through the earth or air explain it in any way? Or did a certain fly, owing to certain terrestrial and atmospheric conditions, suddenly present itself in large numbers and stimulate the quiescent appetite of the fish? I certainly noticed no such appearance of flies. Or was it a mere freak suggested by some little coterie of fish (nescio qua dulcidine capta) who passed the word on (as Masons do) and telegraphed up and down the stream by a kind of exercise of electro-biological power—“ Let’s have half-an-hour’s rise at anything”? Verily “no fellah can understand ” these seemingly capri- cious risings of trout ; and perhaps the perplexed angler, if he does not wish to “vex his righteous soul” had better fall back on the philosophic oxymoron of Earl Beacons- field to the effect that “only the unexpected is likely to happen.” One might have thought that the art of fly-fishing in its practical aspect would have hardly tempted the poets, though there is scope enough to hymn its delights to THE TROUT. 153 the fisherman as he wanders on from stretch to stretch of some lovely river. But the poet, according to the etymology of his name, is a “maker” or “creator” (zroint7s), and can “‘ make ”’ prose into poetry and indeed anything out of nothing. Thus, then, the poet Gay :— “You now a more delusive art must try, And tempt their hunger with the curious fly. To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let Nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require ; The peacock’s plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable’s tail. Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings, And lends the growing insect proper wings ; Silks of all colours must their aid impart, And ev’ry fur promote the fisher’s art. So the gay lady, with expensive care, Borrows the pride of land, of sea, and air ; Furs, pearls, and plumes the glittering thing displays, Dazzles our eyes, and easy hearts betrays.” The poet then goes on to refer to the fisherman making his flies on the river-bank, when he finds that the stock in his book fails to attract the fish :— “Mark well the various seasons of the year, How the succeeding insect race appear ; In this revolving moon one colour reigns, Which in the next the fickle trout disdains. Oft have I seen a skilful angler try The various colours of the treach’rous 4ly ; When he with fruitless pain hath skimm’d the brook, And the coy fish rejects the skipping hook, He shakes the boughs that on the margin grow, Which o’er the stream a waving forest throw, When if an insect fall (his certain guide), He gently takes him from the whirling tide, 154 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Examines well his form with curious eyes, His gaudy vest, his wings, his horns, his eyes ; Then round his hook the chosen fur he winds, And on the back a speckled feather binds : So just the colours shine through every part, That Nature seems to live again in Art!” Hear, too, another piscatory poet on fly-making—the Rev. Moses Browne—mentioned in the Note on the Interature of Fishing. “When artful flies the angler would prepare, The tack of ail deserves his utmost skill; Nor verse nor prose can ever teach him well What masters only know, and practice tell. Yet thus at large I venture to support, Nature best follow’d best secures the sport. Of flies the kinds, their seasons, and their breed, Their shapes, their hues, with nice observance heed ; Which most the trout admires and where obtain’d, Experience best will teach you, or some friend ; For several kinds must every month supply, So great’s his passion for variety ; Nay, if new species on the streams you find, Try, you'll acknowledge fortune amply kind.” Thomson also by no means unsuccessfully poetizes the art of fly-fishing :— “ Just in the dubious point, where with the pool Is mix’d the trembling stream, or where it boils Around the stone, or from the hollow’d bank Reverted plays in undulating flow, There throw, nice judging, the delusive fly ; And as you lead it round in artful curve, With eye attentive mark the springing game. Straight as above the surface of the flood They wanton rise, or urged by hunger leap, Then fix with gentle twitch the barbed hook ; Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, THE TROUT. 155 And to the shelving shore slow dragging some, With various hand proportion’d to their force.” And thus he proceeds, giving by the way good advice to fishermen who, I suppose on the principle that.“ little fish are sweet,” do not always return to the river their undersized captures. “If yet too young, and easily deceived, A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod : Him, piteous of his youth and the short space He has enjoy’d the vital light of heaven, Soft disengage, and back into the stream The speckled captive throw. But should you lure From this dark haunt beneath the tangled roots Of pendant tree the monarch of the brook, Behoves you then to ply your finest art. Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly, And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear ; At last, while haply o’er the shaded sun Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death ; With sullen plunge, at once he darts along Deep struck, and runs out all the lengthen’d line; Then seeks the farthest ooze, the sheltering weed, The cavern’d bank, his old secure abode ; And flies aloft and flounces round the pool, Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand That feels him still, yet to his furious course Gives way, you now retiring, following now Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage ; Till floating broad upon his breathless side, And to his fate abandon’d, to the shore You gaily drag your unresisting prize.” I have already ventured to say that “life is too short wherein to tie one’s own flies.” But if any one fancies to do so, he can learn much by way of book-learning from Mr. Francis and Mr. Pennell, from Ronald’s Fly- 156 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. Jisher’s Entomology and Hofland’s British Angler’s Manual, and even from such unpretending works as Best’s Art of Angling and The Jolly Anglers. In some of the manuals, too, diagrams will show him how to use his fingers in manipulating the different materials. Lessons, however, from an oral and digital instructor will do more for the pupil than all the books. “ Dibbing,” “ daping,” or “ dapping,” with the natural fly is a recognized method of killing trout; but, as a fine art, it cannot be compared to whipping with the artificial fly. It requires, however, to insure success considerable adroitness and craftiness, to say nothing of most laborious care. An adept at this game has most of the distinctive qualities of a good angler; and, unless the fish are quite off or the locality unsuited to this method of fishing, he will seldom fail to produce a good show of fish. And, after all, to the angler, like other good sportsmen, though he does not actually “look to the pot,” one of the great pleasures of a day’s sport is to display to his family and friends the substantial results of his skill and patience. As the season advances, and the water in many rivers gets very low and bright, a day’s dapping is surely legitimate enough. Among the best flies for the purpose may be mentioned the May fly, the alder, the stone fly, and the “ down-hill fly.’ This last-named, a large, flat fly, with mottled wings, is found especially on the trunks of oak trees and park palings, and always with his tail upwards; and yet does not seem to suffer from blood to the head! But really almost any fly will answer for dapping, house flies and bluebottles being perhaps as killing as any. It is not the fly, but how you use it, that determines your success; how you manage to secrete THE TROUT. 157 yourself; how drop your line, and how work it, or, rather, let it work. You require a stiffish rod for the game. Two small flies impaled back to back often answer better than one large one. A kind of “ dapping ” igs the use of the “ blow-line,” with the natural fly. The rod for the purpose should be very long and very light, and moderately stiff, the line of the most delicate floss silk, and the foot-line of the very finest gut. You stroll along the river, and when you see a fish rise, you get the wind at your back, your rod per- pendicular, and release your streamer, which should float like a gossamer in the air. When you have the fly in such a position that lowering the point of your rod would allow it to drop on the spot you wish, you lower your rod accordingly, and pray the River God to befriend you—the which he often does. Indeed, this isa very killing method with trout; so much so, that it is not allowed on many waters. I do not, however, see why it should be for- bidden, for thowgh I have said it is a very killing method, it is only so when you have a river and the wind exactly suited for it, and you yourself are a master of the art. Do not suppose for a moment that any one can manipulate a blow-line. Akin to dapping with the natural fly is dapping with grasshoppers and a variety of other insects, more particu- larly with beetles. A very young frog, or one just emerging from the tadpole state, is a killing bait. Indeed, so omnivorous is the trout that it would be difficult to enumerate many living insects he would not take. In this kind of dapping, however, you often let your bait sink below the surface, and even to mid-water. No slight art is required for success in this department, and to fish very 158 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. low and clear water in this style a man must be a good fisherman. When the water is in this state it is almost indispensable that you wade and fish wp stream. For full information on the methods of fishing briefly alluded to in the last few paragraphs, I would refer the young angler specially to Mr. Francis’s Book on Angling, and Trout Fishing in Rapid Streams. The use of the natural and artificial minnow is another recognized method for taking the common river trout ; though this, again, is forbidden in many waters in conse- quence of its deadly effect. The summer months are best for spinning the minnow, and a trout, if at all inclined to feed, can seldom resist this bait if properly offered to him. For preference I should say use a natural minnow,i.e. if you can putit on your hooks ‘“welland truly.” Itmust spinvery correctly on its axis, as all trout are almost as particular in this respect as the true Thames trout. Any “wobbling” is fatal to success. If you cannot carry or get carried your minnows alive ina bait-can, sprinkle them with a little salt, and pack them with bran ina box. They are more easily handled when thus treated. I do not think it matters much what form and arrangement of hooks you use, as long as you put your bait on properly. At least, this is my experience, and I have used a great variety of tackle. Mr. Francis, I notice, is very particular on this point, and strongly condemns Hawker’s principle and the metal cap over the lips of the bait. I have, however, found this tackle to answer admirably. I certainly agree with him as to the use of the “ Field” lead for the prevention of that bane of the spimner’s sport, ‘‘ kinking ” of the line. There is an infinite variety of artificial minnows. After trying very many, I find that practically the old “ Archi- THE TROUT. 159 medean” horn minnow is as good as any, and with this I will couple the plano-convex minnows of Mr. Hearder, which have the advantages of spinning without turning the hooks at the same time. In minnow fishing always fish up stream; spin to your right and left alternately when you can wade up the middle of the water; and draw your bait obliquely down stream. Spin, too, at one regular pace, neither increasing or diminishing your speed when a fish runs at you. Con- trary to the opinion held by Mr. Francis, I do not think it necessary to “strike” the fish when he strikes you. Simply, draw on. I would advise a special rod to be used for minnow fishing, long and light, and fairly lissome, but varying somewhat, according to the nature of your stream and the size of fish you expect to catch. In small rivers, where fish do not often reach a pound in weight, your fly rod, if it is one of the “ stiff”? or medium stiff class, will answer the purpose; but perhaps it is better to have a minnow top for use when required. Worm-fishing for trout is another deadly method, and among the forbidden pleasures on most waters. But there is worm-fishing and worm-fishing. When the water is discoloured, and the run of a river is specially adapted for this work, the most ordinary of anglers can let the stream wash his worm into likely places, and he is almost certain to take fish. But itis avery different matter when the water is low and clear, and fly-fishing hopeless. Then he must fish wp stream, and use the finest of tackle, and that most artistically. And he must be very particular as to the kind of worm he uses. The poet again gives him directions, even on this prosaic matter :-— 160 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “ You must not every worm promiscuous use, Judgment will tell thee proper baits to choose ; The worm that draws a long, immod’rate size The trout abhors, and the rank morsel flies; And if too small, the naked fraud’s in sight, And fear forbids, while hunger does invite. Those baits will best reward the fisher’s pains Whose polish’d tails a shining yellow stains ; Cleanse them from filth, to give a tempting gloss, Cherish the sullied reptile race with moss ; Amid the verdant bed they twine, they toil, And from their bodies wipe their native soil.” I think Gay must mean the “brandling” by “the rank morsel.” The best worm for atroutis the “marsh” worm or a well-scoured, succulent “lob.” Not the gamey, odori- ferous “brandling,” loved of the voracious perch and tench. A trout turns up, or rather away, his nose at the very smell of it. He no more fancies a meal of these offspring of the manure heap than an alderman does a dinner of plain biscuits. At least this is my experience, and I must confess I am somewhat surprised at Mr. Francis and other authorities recommending the “ brandling” as a trout worm. A friend of mine recently told me that he once had the opportunity of throwing a fine “brandling ” before the nose of a splendid trout of some 3 or 4 lbs., who, with many others of his fellows, were roving just beneath the surface of a lake, seeking what they might devour. The fish at once dashed at the wriggling morsel open-mouthed, but hardly had his teeth closed on it than he ejected the mangled mass fully a foot through the water, and evinced such evident tokens of disgust as fully demonstrated that a “ brandling ” was not to his taste. Here, then, I must leave the minnow and worm-fishing THE TROUT. 161 for trout. At the best, they are not to be compared with fly-fishing :— “The minnow in summer its monsters will kill, And the worm loads the pannier, when nothing else will ; But give me the spring-time, the light-dropping hackle, And the masterly cast, with the finest of tackle.” I do not wonder that the poets prefer fly-fishing to worm-fishing. Says one,— “ Around the steel no tortured worm shall twine, No blood of living insect stain the line ; Let me, less cruel, cast the feather’d hook With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook ; Silent along the mazy margin stray, And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.” And another, after an invitation to fly-fishing, says,— “ But let not on thy hook the tortured worm Convulsive twist in agonizing folds, Which by rapacious hunger swallow’d deep, Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast Of the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch, Harsh pain and horror to the trembling hand.” Their preference for fly-fishing is reasonable enough, but it never seems to have struck these worthy songsters that, as a matter of inhumanity, it must be as cruel to impale a trout as to impale a worm. Thus the trout is taken by a greater variety of methods and a greater variety of baits than any fish that swims. But not a word on “ cross-fishing,” or the use of salmon roe. Let not these things be hardly as much as named among us. And yet a jotting on “ tickling” trout. I have read of trout being tickled, heard of it from scores of persons, M 162 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. and seen many attempt the operation; but I never yet saw a trout brought out of water in the human hand after tickling. There is most respectable authority of ancient date for trout-tickling, and the belief in the tradition and possibility of performing the operation is almost universal. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s Rule a Wife and have a Wife, Act ii., occurs the following :— ‘He is mine own, I have him; I told thee I would tickle him like a trout.” And we read, in the Haven of Health, published in 1636, concerning the trout,— “ This fish by nature loveth flattery, for being in the water it will suffer itself to be handled, coaxed, and led astray, whose example I would wish us maidens not to follow, lest they repent after.” Bunyan, too, in his Apology for his Book, doubtless alluding to trout, says,— ‘Yet fish there be that neither hook nor line, Nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine ; They must be groped for, and be tickled too, Or they will not be catch’d, whate’er they do.” How can I doubt, then, but that trout are tickled? And yet I do—for that most illogical and unreasonable of all reasons, viz. the fact that I never saw one tickled, and never met a person who plainly declared that he him- self had tickled and so caught one. Putting salt on the tails of birds is a most excellent device for catching these shy creatures, but the difficulty is to apply the salt. So doubtless tickling is an admirable way of beguiling trout ; but do they really allow themselves to be tickled ? THE TROUT. 163 My last jotting re trout is gastronomical. In the Haven of Health (1636) we read that— “A troute is so sound in nourishing that when we would say in English a man is thoroughly sound, we use to say that he was as sound as a troute.” Izaak Walton says,— “Tt is a fish highly valued in this and foreign nations. He may be justly said, as the old poet said of wine, and we English say of venison, to be a generous fish—a fish that is so like the buck, that he also has his seasons ; for it is observed that he comes in and goes out of season with the stag and buck....He may justly contend with all fresh- water fish, as the mullet may with all sea-fish, for precedency and daintiness of taste, and being in right season the most dainty palates have allowed precedency to him.” I have already said that a real Thames trout is as good as the best of salmon, and better than a great many. The Colne trout, his first cousin, is but little if at all inferior to him; and the trout of some few other waters are almost equally good in texture of flesh and flavour. But, generally speaking, as trout vary in form and colouring in different rivers, so do they vary in the quality of their meat. Some cook crisp and eat most sweet, while others are soppy and almost as muddy in flavour as a pond roach or bream, or are simply tasteless. There is no fish from either fresh or salt water that varies so much in a gastronomic point of view as a trout. The recipes for cooking a trout are almost as numerous as the varieties of the fish itself. Our forefathers, whatever we may say of their “ simple” ways, were seldom contented to eat their fish aw naturel, but directed their cooks to prepare them with such numerous ingredients for stuffing, cooking, “serving,” and sauce, that the wonder is they mu 2 164 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. could collect them in a working day. Old Thomas Barker (1657) gives us some of these laborious instructions for dealing with trout, and is followed by other writers who exercise a vast amount of misplaced ingenuity in this direction. Would it be believed that the aforesaid Barker actually gives directions for the making of trout pie, ‘ hot” and “cold”? A trout should not be subjected to indig- nity in cooking! It is all very well to endeavour to dis- guise a bad fish by the assistance of the Mageiric Art, but why disguise a good one? We do not try to disguise salmon, though we eat lobster sauce and cucumber with him ; and indeed it was a “ happy thought” of the man who first hit on the latter as an accompaniment of the royal fish. Why then disguise good trout? A good big trout is best simply boiled, or cut into cutlets and simply broiled; and he will be all the better for having been “crimped” (as Sir Humphrey Davy recommends) like salmon and cod. A good small trout is best broiled whole, either split open or not, and eaten with a little plain butter, pepper, and salt. If he is not worth eating then, he is not worth eating at all. Here endeth the trout; and I must leave it to my readers to accept the apology already tendered for not having attempted to deal with him more fully and systematically. NOTE VIL THE GRAYLING. (Salmo Thymallus, or Thymallus Vulgaris.) “ Effugieus vculis celeri Umbra natatu.”—Avsontvs. “ And here and there a Grayling.” TENNYSON. “ Trout and Grailing to rise are so willing.” The Angler’s Ballad.—Cotton. Here is another member of the numerous salmon family, as distinguished by the second back fin, soft, flabby, and without rays. The Thymallus of Ailian was probably our grayling. ‘This distinctive name of the grayling was given him in consequence of the smell of “thyme” which the fish is said to emit when first taken from the water. The association of this odour with the grayling dates very far back. Walton speaks of it, and says that some persons think the fish feed on water thyme, and so smell of it; “and they may think so with as good reason,” he adds, “as we do that our smelts smell like violets at their being first caught, which I think is a truth.” He also refers us much further back, viz. to the time of St. Ambrose, “the glorious Bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept fasting days, who calls him the ‘ flower-fish’ or ‘ flower of fishes,’ and was so far in love with him that he would not let him pass without the 166 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. honour of a long discourse.””? But many persons utterly fail to distinguish this thymy fragrance about the fish, while some detect the smell of cucumber; but others, again, recognize neither one nor the other. There is cer- tainly some subtle odorous emanation from the body of a fresh-caught Thymallus, but I think it is an effort of the imagination to connect it with any definite known scent. It is a fragrance, and I am not quite sure a very pleasant one, for to my nose a grayling, notwithstanding the thyme and cucumber, has a decidedly “ fish-like” smell. At the same time, however, I do not wish that what may perhaps be a want of anice olfactory discrimination on my part should tend to rob the fish of his thymy association or his pretty classical name. But why called “grayling”? It is said by some, from - the gray or grayish “lateral line” along him; by others, from “ the longitudinal dusky blue bars” which mark the body; and by others, again, because of the bluish-gray colour of the fish generally. Certainly the grayling is a gray fish in a greater degree than any other fish can be said to be gray. There is an idea of grayness predominat- ing, taking the fish as a whole; the Latin cinereus, “ ash- coloured” or “ashy-gray,” being perhaps as near as we can get in chromatic description. The old name for the badger was the “ gray,” i.e. the gray quadruped par excel- lence ; in like manner the grayling may be considered the gray fish par excellence. And yet I have a secret doubt whether the colour “ gray” has anything to do with the name of our fish at all, and question whether we must not search for some root, gr or gra, to account for his nomen- clature. A more ancient name of the grayling was the wmber, THR GRAYLING. 167 i.e. wmbra (shadow). Thus he is the “shadow-fish,” and pretty enough name also, and said to be given hin, according to Hippolito Salivani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century, in his De Piscibus, eum eorum figuris, “from his swift swimming, or gliding out of sight more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish.” The grayling, when in wait for flies, does not lie near the surface of the water like the trout, but several feet below it; and his habit of darting up at his prey, and descending again as rapidly and almost perpendicularly, by the aid of his enormous dorsal fin, is certainly suggestive of a fish which “ fleeth as it were a shadow.” But it would almost seem that we are not to be allowed to enjoy this explanation of “ umber” in peace, for Cotton says he is “apt to conclude” that the grayling has this name from the black i.e. shadowy spots on his belly, and the black colour about his head, gills, and back when he is out of season. Cotton, however, is a little out in his facts here, for in reality the darker the fish, especially upon the back and head, the better condition he is in. It is by no means an easy thing to describe the grayling as to his form and colouring, so as to bring the fish before the mind’s eye. This is how one modern angling author limns him :— “Tts colouring, when in fine condition and just taken from the water, is most lovely. The back is of a deep purple or claret colour, with, small dark, irregular spots on the sides; the belly is brilliantly white, and the dorsal fin, which is remarkably large—almost dispro- portionately so—is covered with scarlet spots and wavy lines upon a ground of reddish-brown. The little velvet-looking back fin near the tail is also dark brown or purple, and the whole body is shot with violet, copper, and blue reflections when seen in different lights.” This is the painting by another brush :— 168 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. “A general tint, which may be called a light blue, silvery gray, per- vades nearly the whole surface of his body, excepting the belly, which is white or nearly so; but the scales often exhibit iridescent hues of great beauty. The back and head are of a much darker gray, but its components cannot, perhaps, be described verbally. Some lines of brown are intermixed with the gray of the sides, and a few black spots are seen near the shoulder. The back fin has a purplish tint, studded with large dark spots; the other fins are not so red as those of the trout, but have more yellow-brown in them shaded off with purple. The tail is a kind of slate colour.” If you wish to appreciate the delicate tinting and “shot” colouring of a grayling hold him horizontally before you. He is most exquisitely painted, though the colouring is all subdued. He is an elegantly-formed fish, though I will not go as far as Mr. Ronalds and say, ‘“ more elegantly formed even than the trout.” One of the authors just above quoted, comparing the two fish, says, “ The trout has, so to speak, a Herculean cast of beauty; the grayling rather that of Apollo—light, delicate, and gracefully symmetrical,” and Mr. Francis says, “If the trout be the gentleman of the streams, the grayling is certainly the lady.” This is not bad ; but though the trout is generally of a heavier build than the grayling, he is not less “ gracefully symmetrical.” The grayling has a smaller head and mouth than the trout, and tapers more towards the tail; but as a set-off against these elegances and graces he has _ broader shoulders ; while what may be called his “lozenge-shaped ” eye gives him an unpleasant or even sinister expression. While, however, I fully admit that the grayling is a graceful and symmetrical fish, I cannot divest myself of an idea which always presents itself to my mind whenever I contemplate one. It is that, somehow or other, he is a THE GRAYLING. 169 nondescript kind of fish. If I may say so without irreve- rence, he seems to have been turned out of hand before it was clearly determined what definite form he should ulti- mately assume. To my eye he is in shape suggestive of the barbel, especially as to his somewhat ‘“‘ Roman nose,” and also of the dace as to his elongated body and “ silveri- ness,” while his back fin, which looks as if it were “spinous,” suggests that he was originally intended to be a member of the perch family. The very extreme weight of a grayling in our waters may be put at 5lbs., one scaling this weight having been recorded as taken near Shrewsbury some yearsago. A 4b. fish very seldom falls to the angler’s lot; and there- fore Mr. T. L. Parker’s three grayling taken in the Avon near Ringwood, which together weighed 12 Ibs., will for ever be handed down in piscatorial annals. As a rule, the fly-fisher for grayling must be contented with a very occa- sional two-pounder, with a few pounders, and an average of half-pounders, I mean taking together the result of two or three seasons on different rivers. Itis the smaller fish which rise most freely at the fly, the leviathans feeding mainly on animal supplies in the depths below or the more substantial “ waifs and strays” of midwater. Doggerel rhymes or the more sober prose memoranda of history generally supply us with the authors and date of the introduction into this country of various commo- dities animate and inanimate. The monks who “ Made gude kail On Fridays when they fasted,” have the credit for importing the grayling into our waters ; but it may be doubtful whether they are entitled 170 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. to it, and the statement in support of it to the effect that grayling are only found in streams on which monasteries once stood is not as a matter of fact correct. Nor again would it have been very easy to have brought such a very delicately-constitutioned fish from the Continent. We shall, therefore, probably be correct in assuming that the grayling, like the trout, is indigenous to this country. The fact that they are not so widely distributed in the United Kingdom as trout does not really militate against this assumption. There is no fish so particular as to the kind of water it delights in, or whose well-being and increase is so affected thereby. There are no grayling in Ireland or Scotland, except in the Clyde, where they have been introduced. They are found, however, in the Orkney Isles. Wales, also, is graylingless, except in the “ border ” rivers, unless the few exceptions which from time to time have been noted prove the rule. They have their land, or perhaps I should say their water marks, and like certain birds are not found beyond certain lines of longitude and latitude even in the circumscribed area of this “ tight little island.” “Est quadam prodire tenus, sed non datur ultra.” The nightingale never crosses westward the boundaries of Devonshire; the grayling will not pass into Somersetshire. His most loved waters are those of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Herefordshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland, and yet by no means all waters in these counties. Com- pared with the ubiquitous trout we find only “ Here and there a grayling.” The best grayling rivers are the Test, the Ichen, the (Hampshire) Avon, the Lugg and its tributary the Arrow, THE GRAYLING. 171 the Teme, the Dove, the Derwent, and the Wharfe; but anglers are naturally inclined to uphold those waters in which they have met with the best sport. Without offence, however, it may be said that though the Teme grayling is the best specimen of his race, the fishing of the Lugg bears off the palm. The geological formation of the beds of rivers, which of course affects the quantity and quality of fish diet to be obtained, and the character of the “run ”’ of the river itself, determine to a very great extent the suitability of the water for grayling. They do not like continuously rapid streams, or rocky, chalky, or sandy bottoms, but marl and loam combined with gravel—< happy mixtures ” —and streams along which sharp stickles are succeeded at frequent intervals by long, quiet channels and deep pools. As an instance of the partiality of grayling for one water and their dislike of another, I may mention a fact of a very striking character which came under my own observation. A friend and myself were enjoying a week’s fly-fishing on the waters of the Pembroke pro- perty round Wilton, and in the river which ran north of the town (the Wylie, if I remember rightly) we took many grayling, while in the river which ran south (the Nadder) we took nothing but trout; but in the water below the junction of the two rivers outside the park in the direction of Salisbury, we took both trout and grayling. We noticed the fact, and on inquiry learnt- that not a single grayling was ever found in the Nadder, though they were fairly plentiful immediately after its junction with the Wylie. The success of attempts to introduce grayling into 172 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. rivers, where they are not “naturally” found, is very dubious. In some few instances the experiment of accli- matization has answered well; in the majority it has been a failure, though, as far as our limited knowledge goes, the water experimented on satisfied all the supposed requirements of the fish. A large number of stock fish were put into the Thames some years ago by Mr. War- burton, and the Thames Angling Preservation Society has also endeavoured to bring the grayling nearer to London anglers, but it is evident that neither attempt has yielded substantial results, though “here and there,” and at long intervals a disconsolate Thymallus is picked up “ promiscuously ” by a Thames angler, and each one is -more and more likely to be “the last of the Mohicans.” I have also among my fishing memoranda one to the effect that in 1864 nearly 1500 grayling fry were put into the Lea about three miles above Hertford. I have often made inquiries about these grayling, but have never yet been able to “hear of something to their advantage.” Grayling will “hold on” for some years in water they do not like, for instance in a newly-made pond of stagnant water, but they will not “increase and multiply ”’ unless they are perfectly satisfied with their location and sur- roundings. Still there can be little doubt but that grayling could be successfully naturalized in many rivers which do not now hold them. On the Continent this fish is widely distributed, from Lapland, where it is most abundant, to the “ great toe” of Italy; but the same capriciousness, if we may so call it, as to its choice of water is observable as in this country. The “ Habits and Customs” of the grayling are in- THE GRAYLING. 173 teresting. They spawn in April or the beginning of May, depositing their roe amongst gravel at the tails of swift currents. They are more gregarious than many other fish, much more so than trout. They show a disposition to a kind of migration, appearing first in one part and then in another part of a river in greater abundance, and they have a general tendency to drop gradually down a river. Unlike their relatives of the Salmonide family they seldom jump out of water, and evince no wish to surmount natural or artificial obstructions, for I suppose the very good reason that they could not if they would. General obser- vation and experience leads to the conclusion that as a rule trout and grayling do not thrive well together in the same water, the trout getting the worst of the partner- ship and decreasing in numbers as well as deteriorating in quality. This is very noticeable in some of our best gray- ling waters. Some persons say that grayling are avery pugnacious fish, and really worry and harass the trout. They are bottom feeders to a much greater extent than trout, but unlike the trout will come up through many feet of water to take a fly. The tenderness of their mouths is another characteristic of grayling. Almost the only bait which a grayling will not take of those which a trout will is the minnow, though Izaak Walton has a note to the contrary. A grayling is a less timid and wary fish than the trout. “Pink” is a local name given to fish one year old, “shot” or “shut” to fish of two. As “pinks” they have neither lateral lines visible nor spots. As “ shot” they have spots, but the longitudinal lines are but faintly discernible. Grayling do not spawn till their third year. Grayling do not take flies so early in the year as trout 174 NOLES ON FISH AND FISHING. do in some-rivers, but in March and April they rise more freely than perhaps in any other months, and a tyro can take them then in large quantities, especially the smaller fish. But as they are more or less out of season during the spring and summer months, July is quite early enough to fish for them, when generally speaking trout- ing is becoming slack. Till then, good angler, return to the water the fish you may hap to take! The proper grayling season may be said to be from August to Decem- ber inclusive, and it is not unfair to take them even in January. Thus the fly fisherman can pursue his delicate pastime all the year round, as the early trout, especially in Devonshire, may be fished for as soon as February sets in. As the winter comes on, the middle hours of the day are the best for grayling fishing with fly, and when the sun is shining between eleven and two you may have capital sport in mid-December. Sir Humphrey, who treats most excellently on the grayling and gray- ling fishing, is not to be followed when he says that the sport may be pursued at all times of the year. Put roughly—the flies that kill trout kill grayling, and the same rules are to be observed in both branches of fly-fishing. The various kinds of duns, and spinners, the willow, the sedge or cinnamon fly, May flies, partridge and woodcock hackles, and in winter black or pale gnats, are all good; but fishermen should not despise the “ local” flies, such, for instance, as the Derbyshire “ bum- ble.’ Mr. Pennell of course maintains that his three typical trout flies, yellow, green, and brown, are all that are required. As a rule your flies should all be made onasmaller scale for grayling than for trout, and your gut finer. Indeed you cannot fish too finely for grayling. THE GRAYLING. 175 But though undoubtedly fishing up stream for trout is the most artistic and killing method, it is not so in the case of grayling. Mr. Francis’s directions on this point are worth transcribing :— “ As, more particularly in deepish water, he has to rise from some depth, you should not hurry the fly in casting, but make your cast rather drag. For this reason, fishing up stream and drawing down is not the best method of fishing, because you do not give the fish time ; and all experienced grayling-fishers cast directly across stream, as close as possible to the opposite bank, where the best fish of course lie, and let it drag slowly round down stream, bringing it round by so direct- ing the point of the rod even to their own bank. In bringing the fly round slowly like this it will often become submerged, and the gray- ling, rising quietly under water, will take the fly without being seen, and reject it speedily. Many rises will thus be lost, and these are often the best fish. To avoid this, the angler should give a short twitch or strike at everything in the least suspicious that may lead him to infer that a fish has risen. A dimple or curl in the water where no eddy exists, or stoppage of the line in its downward course, &c. &c., should instantly be attended to, and very often the angler will be rewarded for his keenness.” Among other Nota-benes for the grayling fly-fisher are —Strike as quickly as possible; remembering the ten- der mouth of your fish, strike as lightly as possible, with a gentle turn of the wrist; play him as delicately as possible. Always carry a landing-net, and never attempt to “weigh out” a grayling by the line. Let your fly frequently float down stream, and sometimes sink towards the bottom. If a fish rises and you miss him or he misses you, cast over him a second and a third time, and indeed many times, for a grayling has a habit of making many attempts to secure his object. You. may often see a fish take your fly just below the surface of the water without “ breaking ”’ the surface ; 176 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. keep a sharp look out for this, and strike instantaneously. The tails of deep pools are the best spots for big grayling, but be content with moderate-sized fish, for the big fish are not often taken with the fly. Grayling may be taken by dapping, and by most of the insects natural and artificial used for trout at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom of the water; but the “ grasshopper ”’ practice is now the most popular because the most efficacious, especially for taking the largest fish. Ji is an artificial bait, and called the “ grasshopper;” I suppose, on the lucus a non lucendo principle, because it is not like a grasshopper in the faintest degree. It is more like a caterpillar, but not much like that. It is simply a “wadge” of various-coloured wool about Zin. in length bound round the shank of a hook, and made to taper towards the tail. At the tail, i.e. on the bend of the hook, you elaborate a bunch of gentles—as many almost as you can get on—till the point of the hook is almost covered. You use a moderately stout gut bottom and small piece of quill, a quasi-float, to guide your eye as to the depth of your bait, and a fairly stiff rod. Your “Grasshopper ” you work on what is called the “ sinking and drawing ”’ principle, i.e. you let it down till it touches the bottom, and then keep raising it about a foot and letting it sink again; the stream, which must not be too rapid, gently carrying your bait a little further on each time. The bait thus “hops,” and it has just struck me that the inventor of it and the style of fishing might have originally called it a “ hopper,’ and that some one afterwards added the “ grass” in mere ignorance or for the sake of euphony (?). Anyhow it is most slaughtering tackle in the autumn and winter months, THE GRAYLING. 177 Grayling may also be caught by ordinary methods of bottom-fishing, especially with gentles as a bait and ground-bait ; but the “ Nottingham ”’ style is to be pre- ferred, “ Whipping” with gentles is also a recognized method. But who would endeavour or care to snare grayling with “ grasshoppers,” gentles, worms, or any of the whole tribe of grayling baits, when there is a reason- able prospect of success with the artificial fly ? Here is a quaintly-worded little morsel re grayling by Mr. Franks :— «The umber, or grayling, is an amorous fish that loves his life; his mouth waters after every wasp, as his fins flutter after every fly ; for, if it be buta fly, or the produce of an insect, out of a generous curiosity, he is ready to entertain it. Smooth and swift streams enamour him, but not a torrent; yet, for this fly-admirer, there is another bait—the munket or sea-green grub, generated amongst owlder trees, also issues from willows, sallow, &c. Fish him finely, for he loves curiosity, neat and slender tackle, and lady-like. You must touch him gently, for he is tender about the chaps; a brandling will entice him from the bottom, and a gilt-tail will invite him ashore.” And now, when we have hooked your grayling, what sport does he give us? It is strange how anglers differ on this point, as I do not fancy the sportiveness of gray- ling in one river differs much from the sportiveness of those in another. Going back to an ancient and good practical authority, Cotton, we find him recording his ex- perience to the effect that the grayling “is one of the deadest-hearted fish in the world ; and the bigger he is the more easily taken ;” but Mr. Senior, a well-known angler and author on fishing, says, ‘ He is not by any means the chicken-hearted brute described by Cotton.” Mr. Pennell, on the same side, says, “ Whilst yielding to its sister species, the trout, in the qualities of dash and obstinate N 178 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. courage, the grayling is yet a sturdy and mettlesome fish—a foeman worthy of our steel.” Mr. Ronalds quotes Bainbridge, and evidently agrees with him: ‘ Most writers in treating of this fish have stated that it struggles but for a very short time, and is, therefore, productive of little diversion, but the contrary is not unfrequently the case ;”’ and further Mr. Ronalds says, “ He is an excellent fish for sport.” Mr. Francis speaks disparagingly of grayling, thus: ‘Though now and then one will fight boldly and well, too often they behave as a trout might be imagined to do if he had been drinking success to the May fly rather too freely.” Here, then, is a pretty good mixture of opinion. My own feeling and experience is that he is but a “moderate” fighter, not to be compared with the trout or the barbel, or (if itis lawful parvis componere.magna), for his size, the tiny gudgeon. He makes a few strongish dashes which remind me of the action of the bream when first hooked, but, as a rule, he soon gives up the struggle ; while some- times it pleases him to hang almost like a dead weight on your line, or rather like an eel, to pull backwards, i.e. tail first. A good day’s grayling fishing is, however, one of the most enjoyable day’s fishing we can have. No little difference of opinion again exists on the edible virtues of Salmo thymallus. As grayling do not vary to any great extent in their form and colouring in different rivers, so there is no very great difference in their flavour. They are all ‘much of a muchness,” be that muchness good, bad, or indifferent. St. Ambrose, it is evident from what has been recorded of him, considered a grayling prime eating for “ miserable sinners;” and Father THE GRAYLING. 179 Sanctus called the fish a “queen of delight.” Walton reminds us that Gesner says “that in his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish ;” that in Italy, in the month of May, he was so highly valued as to be sold at a much higher rate than any fish ; and that the French so prized him as to say that he was fed on gold. Cotton says that he is a “ winter fish,”’— “ But,” he adds, “such a one as would deceive any but such as know him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst season, is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is very good meat at all times; but in his perfect season, which, by the way, none but an overgrown grayling will ever be, I think him so good a fish as to be little inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in my life.” Cotton is only partly right in his remarks; for though perhaps a grayling is never absolutely out of season, yet without doubt he improves in flavour and in texture of flesh as the autumn passes into winter, and deteriorates as the winter passes into spring. The orthodox angler will not fish for him till August, and the educated gourmand, your gourmet, will not eat him till October. It is in this month and November that the best of grayling, the Teme grayling, is in his primest condition, which he calls atten- tion to by the deep purple colour of his back, by the black spots on his sides, by the spotless whiteness of his belly fringed with gold, and by his rich purple- tinted fins. However plump (and he is always plump), and fat, he may seem to the eye, and however well he may handle, in the summer months, these are not his “season.” He is really but little better then than our common “coarse” fish. He comes in with the pheasant. And when he does come in, I shall briefly sum up my n2 180 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. own private gastronomic views of him to the effect that he is not to be compared with any fairly good trout, though I willingly acquit him of that “ muddiness” which so dis- tastefully attaches more or less to most of our fresh-water fish. Walton says that “all that write of the Umber declare him very medicinable,” and quotes Gesner as an authority to the effect that the fat of the fish, “being set, with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against redness or swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes.” Here is a hint for ladies. I shall never forget “my first grayling,” though I record his capture to my shame. In the days of “ hot youth, when Plancus was consul,” two friends and myself, taking advantage of the few days’ Whitsuntide vacation at Oxford, determined on a visit to Winchester for fly- fishing. We arrived at the old cathedral city on the Saturday evening, “with hopes high burning” of the sport which was in store for us on the Monday, and eventually went to bed and enjoyed blissful visions of any numbers of speckled four-pounders attaching them- selves to ‘‘ apple-greens” and other cunningly-devised flies from the hand of Mr. Pottle. Of course, as decent young Churchmen and Christians, it was taken for granted on Sunday morning among us that we would go to the cathedral service at eleven. But one of the party did not go. It had been whispered in his ear by an evil spirit, more irresistible than any which beset and were discomfited by “the good St. Anthony,” that it was a pity to lose Sunday without casting a fly, especially as the biggest fish were always taken on that day, accord- ing to a very old tradition. He forthwith began to make THE GRAYLING. 181 excuse for not going to the cathedral, and he went not. But, contrariwise, when his friends were safely within the old Norman fane, he sallied forth with a cast of flies in his hat, and his rod let down between the lining and epidermis of his semi-greatcoat, through a slit made for the occasion. Holding his trusty “ Chevallier” in posi- tion as a poacher does his unjointed gun, with his hand in the outside pocket, he sallied forth, with feelings akin to those which a tender-hearted young cracksman, not yet hardened to his work, may be supposed to entertain when starting on his first “job” with all the paraphernalia of his calling carefully secreted about his person. He stole timidly away from the hotel, not without a fear that the “ boots,” or chambermaid, or the most respectable landlady (if she had not gone to some “place of worship”) had “ spotted him.” Down the main street, and then to the left down a bye street (this was a partial relief) ; but he felt that everybody he met had a suspicion of him, and there were more people looking out of windows with upbraiding eyes than he thought could possibly be at home on the Sabbath. At last he is in the meadows, and eventually on a tow-path, as it seemed, and he breathes a little more freely as he sees several sauntering Sabbath- breakers dotted along it. Yet he has half a mind to relin- quish his object ; but a voice whispers in his ear that there is no very great harm, now that he could not get to church, in having a cast or two. Well, it should only be one or two, and then he could get back in time for the sermon! With difficulty the rod is got out of its hiding- place, with haste put together, and he is ready for the first throw. The flies, however, get ina tangle, and catch in the skirt of his coat. He will break them off ;—cut the whole 182 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. thing away ;—-it is a judgment! No; all is right again; the “ die” as well as the line is cast! A rise at once. A fish hooked! A fish landed!