52 THE GRASSHOPPER, ETC. 



soon bait a mouse-trap, and watch all night for 

 the vermin to be caught. There is, too, some- 

 thing peculiarly atrocious, shamefully treacher- 

 ous, in seducing the fish to a certain spot, and 

 then smiting them without mercy. 



I have said the largest Grayling are invariably 

 taken with Grasshoppers or Maggots. I merely 

 mean that though the small fellows, which do 

 not spawn, rise freely all the year, weather per- 

 mitting, at the fly, yet the largest fish, during 

 a whole year — except after they have spawned, 

 and are out of condition, and never taken by the 

 sportsman — do not rise, perhaps, six days. 

 Indeed, I doubt whether the very largest ever 

 rise : most certainly, so rare is that event, as to 

 be not worthy consideration. But they will 

 take the Grasshopper, Cabbage-grub, or Maggot 

 used as above almost every day, winter and 

 summer, that the angler can pursue his sport. 

 Nay, even when the water is so low and the 

 weather so bright that fly-fishing is thoroughly 

 useless, the Grasshopper w^ill not only reward 

 the fisherman, but, in my belief, his reward 

 w^ill be greater than at any other time. When 



