FISHES AND FISHING. 



regales my olfactory nerves. Such are the lasting im 

 pressions made upon us in our days of early childhood. 

 My mother never having tasted fish, when I, as a child, 

 saw a lady partake of it for the first time, I regarded 

 her with astonishment, and could scarcely believe that 

 the person I saw before me was of the feminine 

 gender : indeed, I think, I looked closely at the chin 

 to see if there were any appearance of a beard. 



These scenes of the assortment of fish, which I since 

 know were trout, were repeated frequently during the 

 fine warm weather ; after a time, I was allowed to be 

 present at these fishings, either in care of my mother, or 

 a servant. The manner of conducting them was thus : 

 a portion of the water in the mill-pond was allowed 

 to run off, then two men went into the water with a 

 long net, having a pocket in the centre, bungs at the 

 top, and leads at the bottom ; at each end of the 

 net was a staff five or six feet long ; one man placed 

 himself close to the bank, and the other took a good 

 circuit, and came round to the bank; persons on shore 

 and behind the net, as soon as the semicircle was com 

 plete, beat the water with poles, both to prevent the 

 trout from springing over the net, and to drive them 

 into the pocket of it, when the men came nearer each 

 other, and finally the net was drawn ashore, the pocket 

 was untied, the small fish were returned to the pond, 

 and I have since understood that none were taken 



