152 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



It was made as follows. The stem of the float was of quill 

 (two joined together) eight inches long, and was thrust through 

 a small round cork which was fixed in the middle of it. The 

 upper end of the float was weighted with shots, so that it lay 

 flat on the water. The weight at the hook end was so placed, 

 that when a bite took place the float sprang upright and 

 remained so, this calling attention to the iact of a bite 

 at a great distance. Frank was thus able to let his float swim 

 down the river much farther than he could have done with an 

 ordinary one, because he could distinguish a bite farther off. 



Before the floats had completed their first swim, Dick cried 

 " I have a bite." 



" So have I " said Frank. 



" And so have I," added Jimmy. 



" How absurd," said P'rank, as they were all engaged with a 

 fish at the same time. All three fishes were too large to land 

 without a landing-net, and Dick held Frank's rod while he 

 helped to land Jimmy's fish, and then Jimmy helped to land the 

 others. 



The fishes were as nearly as possible three pounds each, 

 great slab-sided things, which gave a few vigorous rushes and 

 then succumbed quietly to the angler. 



And so the sport went on. At every swim one or the other 

 of them had a bite, and as they did not choose to lose time by 

 using the cloth to every fish, they were soon covered with the 

 slime off them, which dried on their white flannels and made 

 them in a pretty mess. 



" In what immense numbers these fish must breed," said 

 Dick. 



"Yes," answered Frank, "fish of this kind lay more eggs 

 than those of the more bold and rapacious kind, such as the 

 perch and pike. I have read that 620,000 eggs have been 

 counted in the spawn of a big carp. You see that so many of 

 the young are destroyed by other fish that this is a necessary 

 provision of nature. I once saw the artificial breeding of 

 trout by a way which I have never told you of, and it was most 

 interesting. It was in Cheshire, where some gentlemen had 

 preserved a trout-stream and wished to keep up the stock. 

 Into the large stream a small rivulet ran down a cleft in the 

 bank like a small ravine, and in this cleft they had built their 

 sheds. The trout-spawn was placed in troughs which had 



