VII 

 SUBGLACIAL ANGLING 



' Upper Medway. — Till the frost breaks all angling is impossible, 

 unless one likes to break the ice and freeze on the banks.' — (yField, 

 Dec. 13.) 



[Reprinted from The Field, January loth, 1S91.] 



Which no one is likely to like. But why ' freeze 

 on the banks,' — that is, if there are fishes to be 

 caught in the Medway, after breaking the ice, worth 

 the trouble, and all fishes are worth any trouble ? 

 I could ' go it very cold ' for the chance of killing a 

 well-fed pike of, say, some eight or ten pounds. 

 Moreover, no one who has not tried has any idea of 

 the excitement of playing a fish under the ice, with 

 the additional chances of being cut by its edges. It 

 gives quite a salmonesque flavour to the affair ; and 

 unless your blood is as cold as a fish's, there is not 

 much chance of your freezing. 



The only banks I ever felt inclined to freeze on 

 were those of Newfoundland ; and there, though I 

 have caught many fish, — if you may call it catching, 

 for they catch themselves, — the sport is hardly 

 warming enough to keep you much above zero. 



