OF GREAT BRITAIN. 141 



writers of painting the Chub as a sort of water 

 donkey must have either lacked sufficient founda- 

 tion, or else that the Chub of our ancestors were 

 somehow different from those with which we are 

 acquainted. At any rate most of those who have 

 tried it will ffrobably agree as to the difficulty of 

 filling a creel with the specimens produced by our 

 Metropolitan river. Possibly, however, the fish 

 of the Thames may be better educated than those 

 of less classical streams. 



For one thing I can vouch, — that a fish of 

 quicker sight than the Chub does not swim in 

 English waters. The slio'htest jrleam of the rod — 

 the shadow of the swallow flitting over his quiet 

 corner — and down he goes like lead ; so quickly, 

 in fact, that the eye utterly fails to detect the precise 

 movement of his disappearance or ' order of going.' 

 Add to this extreme quickness of perception the 

 woody nature of the haunts in which he is to be 

 found and the fact that the successful Chub-fisher 

 must be prepared to cast his fly to within a few 

 inches of the boughs — often into a space the size 

 of his hat — under penalty of losing either his fish 

 or his tackle, and it will be conceded that the task 

 is no easy one. In fact in this school not a few of 

 the masters of the craft have passed their appren- 

 ticeship. To show how acute is the sight of the 

 Chub, a gentleman who is a most successful bait- 

 fisher on the Thames, and who recendy gained a 

 prize offered by the Piscatorial Society in con- 



