TROUT AND ANGLING. 351 



pound each, and we have a recollection of a few 

 days only which have shown a greater result ; we 

 mean to each individual. We do not remember 

 of ever seeing a poor fish of this kind taken ; they 

 are invariably in good condition, let the size be 

 what it will ; their principal food is the minnow 

 and the shrimp, particularly the latter, with which, 

 early in the season, their stomachs are found to be 

 filled ; they feed upon the minnow rather later in 

 the season, when the increasing warmth of the 

 water invites it to leave the warmer springs of 

 fresh water, where it has passed the winter, 

 and venture into the shallows round the margin 

 of the bay ; it then becomes an easy prey to the 

 voracious trout, which pursues it with despe- 

 rate boldness to the very feet of the angler as he 

 stands in the water, obliging it in shoals to 

 leap from the surface, and sometimes even to be 

 cast on shore in its attempts to escape his hungry 

 jaws. There is a place called minnow-cove, where 

 they are very plentiful, particularly in the boggy 

 marsh holes, in which they collect in the spring so 

 abundantly, that half a net full may be sometimes 

 taken at a single dip. 



At this time, however, they are out of the reach 

 of the trout, though they are on the whole, the 

 best bait ; the shrimp on the contrary, living as 

 they do among the eel-grass in the bay, which 



