SHEFFIELD ANGLER S MATCHES. 



191 



up and down the Thames, and, I beheve, almost all 

 over England. A wine cork is pressed tightly on to 

 the spine of the dorsal fin, and the fish turned loose ; 

 this is what is called " plugging a pope." There are, 



Burr. 



I believe, a great number of these fish in the Yare and 

 Wensum. Mr. Searle tells me that they are plentiful 

 in canal cuts in Berkshire, where there is a gravelly 

 bottom, but not much stream. 



Mr. Edon, the attendant at my fish museum, informs 

 me that the Sheffield people, especially the artisans, are 

 very great anglers, and that angling matches are often 

 instituted, for which prizes are offered. These prizes 

 •are generally exhibited the night before the match, and 

 consist of the funniest things possible, such as a sack 

 of soot, a child's pair of shoes, a hay-fork. The next 

 morning a special train is run to " fish off the match " 

 in the Keadley canal, Lincolnshire, the station being 

 Crewel Bridge, where competitors for the match, from 

 Leeds, York, &c., meet and join the excursion. Pegs are 

 placed along the side of the canal 10 yards apart, each 

 peg being numbered, and the angler who di-aws the 

 number on a ticket di-awn from a big beer-jug must fish 

 at the post corresponding to the number. Sometimes 

 there are as many as five or six hundred competitors. 



