34 THE CHUB. 



holes, and the most shady and retired places. It 

 is of a shy and retired disposition, subsisting on 

 worms and insects. This fish is in no esteem for 

 the table, being coarse and full of bones : it grows 

 to a moderate size only, a chub of five or six pounds 

 being very unusual. The colours vary a little, ac- 

 cording to the season of the year. They are nu- 

 merous in the Wye and Vyrnyew *, and take the red 

 and black palmer flies. They afford no sport, being 

 a cowardly, dead-hearted fish. 



" The chub, or chevin, is a fish of a supine na- 

 ture, yet of a robust and rural disposition, had he 

 but a heart to manage his strength; that upon ex- 

 amination is, by every one understood, better by 

 half for diversion than diet a coarse feeder, and 

 himself as coarse to be fed on; yet of such a vora- 

 cious appetite, that he scorns to see any thing he 

 cannot eat, if other fish can ; but my modesty con- 

 strains me to forbear mentioning it. Now the spring 

 approaching, every thing enamours him, for then 

 he haunts the fords for fashion. It is true he is an 

 early riser, that will sport the angler at break of 

 day, provided he furnish him with cod worms, 

 cankers, caterpillars, cow-dung grubs, gentles, pastes 

 tinctured with gambogium, &c. But then you must 

 cautiously obscure yourself, and appear like an 

 angler, least in sight ; yet still there's another way 

 much better to surprise him, which is by dibbling on 

 the surface of the water, if circumspectly you con- 

 ceal yourself behind a bush, or the more private and 

 solitary shade of trees. But your engine for this 

 * Montgomeryshire. 



