82 The North Country dngler. 



when they thought it needful, to find the lines 

 more readily. This method of theirs put me 

 upon doing something like it in the fresh water 

 pools. I found some parts of their method im- 

 practicable, some inconvenient; these I changed 

 for those I thought easier and better. As for my 

 lines, at first, I used three-fold packthread, with 

 loops at each end to fasten them on the stones ; 

 and instead of knotting my plaits to the line, I 

 made loops at the ends of them, and after I had 

 baited them, linked them on to the line at proper 

 distances ; and after many trials and improve- 

 ments, I came at last to this method, which I 

 think no body can alter for the better. I twist 

 my plaits with an engine, my hooks are made 

 like pike hooks, but single, and pretty long in 

 the shank : the loop at the end of every snood, I 

 make about three or four inches long, nicely and 

 strongly wrapped with white sewing silk ; I use 

 minnows, and other small fish for baits $ which 

 I put on with a needle. My needle is made of 

 steel, four or five inches long, flat, and some- 

 what sharp at the point and sides. The eye of 

 it is about a straw's breadth long, with a nick 

 filed in at one side towards the point of it, for 

 the more conveniently putting the loop of the 

 snood into the eye of it. I put the point of the 

 needle in at the mouth, and out at the 

 very end of the fish's tail, and so draw it on 

 to the phit, till the hook lies in the side of its 

 mouth. 



Some may think, I am too nice in ordering 

 my baits. My method is this: When I have 

 chosen the brightest minnows, with the least 



