THE EWENNY. 89 



poacher of this description in Glamorganshire. 

 Thomas Johns of Bryn-y-minyn is another worthy 

 of the same stamp. 



THE EWENNY 



Is the best river in Glamorganshire for large 

 trout. We have seldom caught any there weighing 

 less than a pound, and they frequently weigh 

 four or five. It is a small river, but abounds 

 with the most beautiful purling streams, and its 

 banks are generally very open, especially that 

 portion flowing through the common, in the vicinity 

 of Coychurch. From Pencoed, about four miles 

 from Bridgend down to Moor Mill ; at the 

 little stone bridge, a few hundred yards from the 

 latter place ; in the mill-pond below *; and thence 



regularly replenished our lights, which burnt out every five 

 minutes, or thereabouts. We went back again to where we 

 left the carp, and found them again. I struck at them several 

 times, but without success. I saw some perch close to the 

 bottom, and I speared one of them. We were in about ten 

 feet water, and I found it very necessary to aim at least a foot 

 below the object. I saw also at the bottom a hideous-looking 

 fish, yellow, with black spots ; the body like that of a snake, 

 with a large head ; about a foot and a half long, and somewhat 

 in form resembling the small fish found under stones in running 

 streams in England, and called the miller's thumb. I speared 

 him, and found him so strong that I verily expected he would 

 have broken the handle of the spear : he was what the Cana- 

 dians call a cat-fish." 



* In this pool we once hooked ten large trout in the distance 

 of a hundred yards. 



