FISHES AND FISHING. 141 



offers no check, or the bullet either ; he turns the bait 

 and swallows it head foremost the hooks glide down 

 with it. As soon as he has done so, he moves away ; 

 the hooks then begin to act ; he finds himself a 

 prisoner, and he must be a powerful fish indeed to 

 pull a brick far from the place. In the morning, 

 having marked the place, drag with a small grapnel, 

 and most probably you will find either a large eel, or a 

 pike on the hook : it is necessary to be cautious in lay 

 ing the trimmer, that it is not in the vicinity of roots 

 of trees, weeds, &c. ; for if a large eel take your bait, 

 he will entangle himself and the lines so completely, 

 that he will die there, and your trimmer is lost. 



In attempting to take up two trimmers, I was once 

 placed in a most perilous situation. I had rowed up 

 our backwater, to a very deep hole, into which a 

 volume of water descended over a bay. I had, over 

 night, placed two trimmers in an eddy by the side of 

 the deep hole which I had pegged to the bank 

 securely : in the morning, between three and four 

 o'clock, I took my gun, and accompanied by a spaniel, 

 as I often shot a wood-pigeon or two, got into my 

 skiff, and rowed up to the bay hole ; there was an 

 increase of water, and I had to pull hard. Just as I 

 had got near the bay, and was guiding the boat to 

 wards the spot where I saw my lines being shaken 

 violently ; at that moment I felt the boat had struck 



