92 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



given in a future page. At the end of these bones are little 

 fleshy appendages, which must be very tempting to most fish, 

 which are always looking out for something to eat. As they are 

 being waved about, they look as if they were alive. The fish 

 darts at the supposed morsel, and is at once engulfed in the 

 huge jaws of the Angler-fish, which, but for this remarkable 

 apparatus, would be scarcely able to support existence, as it is 



ANGLER-FISH. 



but a sluggish swimmer, and yet needs a large supply of food. 

 The illustration, representing on the right hand a fish attracted 

 to a bait, and on the left, the Angler-fish, with its bait-like 

 appendage to the head, speaks for itself. 



PASSING to the art of Angling with a rod and line, we now 

 arrive at another development. 



Supposing a fish to have taken the bait, .and to have been 

 firmly hooked, how is it to be landed ? The simplest plan is, 

 of course, to have a very thick and strong line which will not 

 break with the weight of any ordinary fish. 



This is very well in sea-fishing, where a line made of whip- 

 cord will answer the purpose in most cases. But, in river 

 fishing, we have the fact that the fish are so shy that a linen 

 thread would scare them, and so strong and active, that even 

 whip-cord would not prevent them from breaking the line, or 

 tearing the hook out of their mouths. So the modern angler 

 sets himself to the task of combating both these conditions. 

 In the first place, he makes the last yard or two of his line of 

 " silkworm-gut " a curious substance made from the silk- 

 vessels of silkworms, and nearly invisible in the water. In the 

 next place, he has a very elastic rod ; and, in the third, he has 

 forty or more yards of line, though perhaps only twenty feet are 

 in actual use until the fish is hooked. The remainder of the 

 line is wound upon a winch fixed to the handle of the rod. 



