346 NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



sooner sees him, but his teeth water till he taste 

 of the dainty. 



The gudgeon loves the water, sweet and clear : 

 In freshest streams, and smallest turns, he's there. 

 Look till you find him ; then you find your wish, 

 If for a banquet, or a bait for fish. 



BLEAK. 



The bleak or whitlin is the summer intelli- 

 gencer, and more of a masculine than a feminine 

 nature ; that conceals himself (lady-like) all the 

 winter, till long days and a warm sun invites 

 him forth to purchase flies, which are sold him 

 sometimes at the rate of his life. This fresh- 

 water sprat is of most accurate motion, and feeds 

 not much unlike the swallow, partaking very 

 much of his nature and quality, as near as fish 

 and fowl can do, or as near as fish and flesh can 

 have, and that's as near as the elements can ad- 

 mit of : which certainly is a secret, yet very ob- 

 servable, if the angler but consider their coming 

 in, which is in the vernon ingress ; their natural 

 food, and their going out together, in the autum- 

 nal equinox. You must also remember that he 

 loves not a stream, yet would he by no means 

 dwell far from it ; and bites aloft at the race of 

 flies, yet gratifies himself with the soil of the 



