NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 309 



poaching after mice ; and in the avenues in 

 marshes hunting after frogs, with which he 

 trucks his life for a trifle. But the yellow frog, 

 of all frogs, brings him to hand, for that's his 

 dainty and select diet, wherein nature has placed 

 such magical charms, that all his powers can 

 never resist them, if fastned on the hook w T ith 

 that exactness, that his life may shine, and the 

 bait seem undeprived of natural motion ; which 

 if dextrously performed, the angler will be con- 

 vinced, that a ledger of all baits is the most tru- 

 culent destructive morsel in the world. 



But March expiring, and April on the ascend- 

 ent, his eye-sight clears up, and his appetite too, 

 for a brighter bait ; and then a small roach, or a 

 bream will down ; so will a bleak, and a small 

 young dace, or, for variety, the head of an eel. 

 But if a junior perch be strip'd of his fins, or a 

 fresh plump gudgeon neatly link'd to the arm- 

 ing be but laid before him, he shall never refuse 

 it, when so greedy of a worm that he'l hazard 

 his life for it. But then I prescribe it no ap- 

 proved bait, rather a fortunate accident in my 

 successful adventures. But his winter-quarters 

 are the sullen deeps, where he burdens himself 

 with clouds of water, as aged people do that 

 heap on apparel ; when in the spring he is all 

 gaity, and like the prodigal, scorns that his life 

 .should out-live his patrimony. But the sum- 



