154 FISH HATCHING. 



oblique direction, and takes the fly so instan- 

 taneously that the eye cannot observe the 

 action ; then comes that peculiar twist and 

 twirl in the water so well known to all fisher- 

 men, and which is made by the tail giving 

 force to the descent of the fish back again into 

 the deep. Again, in the tanks before us w^e 

 see going on exactly wdiat Mr. Francis has 

 described in " The Field " as happening on a 

 laro'e scale in the Thames.* The trout and 



o 



* " I can always tell' where fisli are to be found, if tliere are 

 any, because tliere are certain places — big stones, precii^itous 

 banks, &c. — wliicli are favourable resting places ; and where 

 such places are, there is certain to be a fish. Catch one, and 

 in due time another will certainly fill his place ; and the most 

 singular part of the thing is, that they will always be fish of near 

 about the same size. The pile I allude to is such a place, and 

 the fish that hang about it are always about five or six pounds 

 weight ; it is known as 'the white pile,' — a pile at the end of 

 the small eyot at Sunbury ; lower do^vn, towards the cherry 

 orchard, there is always a fish of some eight pounds ; at the 

 orchard there is always a heavy fish ; off the water-works there 

 is always a fish of seven or eight pounds. At Hampton Court 

 Aveir, when I fished it formerly, there was a corner where, if 



