JULY. 219 



The fly used cannot be too small for him. This 

 fish abounds in our northern rivers, especially the 

 Humber ; and the Severn and Wye contain many 

 fine ones. Many trouts are taken in hot weather 

 by tickling them as they lie under the hollow banks 

 of small streams ; and pikes as they bask at the 

 surface in the sunshine are caught by a noose of 

 fine wire or horse-hair, at the end of a rod ; 

 practices which, although not reckoned very sports- 

 manlike, have perhaps quite as much sport in them 

 as if they were. The chub now will take any fly, 

 or cherries, or beetles with the legs and wings cut 

 off; but above all, a grasshopper on the surface, or 

 at the bottom a young humble-bee, such as is found 

 in the mowing grass ; but he is a fearful fish, and 

 requires stillness and secrecy in the angler. The 

 carp is found in the deepest holes of ponds or rivers, 

 beneath banks, roots of trees, etc. and is taken early 

 or late in the day with worm, paste, grub, green 

 peas, cherries, or a grasshopper at the bottom. 

 The salmon now makes glorious fishing with the fly 

 in our northern streams. This noble fish is taken in 

 a multitude of ways, and is a source of great profit 

 to the possessors of streams which it ascends. It is 

 taken in nets, in traps at the weirs, by the line, and the 

 spear. In some parts of Scotland they pursue and 

 spear it by torchlight. In Solway Frith it is speared 

 in the pools left by the receding tide, by men on 

 horseback. As it spawns in December, and is said 

 not to recover itself in less than four months, con- 

 sequently it is not in good condition till April, after 



