154- FISH HATCHING. 



oblique direction, and takes the fly so instan- 

 taneously that the eye cannot observe the 

 action ; then comes that peculiar twist and 

 twirl in the water so well known to all fisher- 

 men, and which is made by the tail giving 

 force to the descent of the fish back again into 

 the deep. Again, in the tanks before us we 

 see going on exactly what Mr. Francis has 

 described in " The Field " as happening on a 

 large scale in the Thames.* The trout and 



* " I can always tell where fish are to be found, if there are 

 any, "because there are certain places big stones, precipitous 

 banks, &c. which are favourable resting places ; and where 

 such places are, there is certain to be a fish. Catch one, and 

 in due time another will certainly fill his place ; and the most 

 singular part of the thing is, that they will always be fish of near 

 about the same size. The pile I allude to is such a place, and 

 the fish that hang about it are always about five or six pounds 

 weight ; it is known as * the white pile,' a pile at the end of 

 the small eyot at Sunbury ; lower down, towards the cherry 

 orchard, there is always a fish of some eight pounds ; at the 

 orchard there is always a heavy fish ; off the water-works there 

 is always a fish of seven or eight pounds. At Hampton Court 

 weir, when I fished it formerly, there was a corner where, if 



