140 PRINCIPAL FISHING STATIONS. 



and better conditioned than we can remember to 

 have taken elsewhere. The nearer you ascend to- 

 wards it source, the more productive it becomes. 

 Above Lampeter, trout of three and four pounds 

 are by no means uncommon : thirty pounds' weight 

 maybe taken in a day by fly fishing, or trolling with 

 either the artificial or natural minnow. The caddis 

 drawn upon a winged hook, and thrown out like an 

 artificial fly, is another most killing bait. Stone 

 flies are also very numerous among the pebbles on 

 the fine long stretches of gravel that form the 

 shores of this beautiful river. A species of trout, 

 called by the Welsh Byrch, swarm in the Teivi 

 about September and October : they weigh from 

 three to fifteen pounds each ; and are also to be 

 caught at the mouths of the Rheidol and the 

 Ystwith, two of the tributaries of the Teivi, for a 

 considerable distance in the salt water.* 



* A Portuguese gentleman from Bahia, a fellow-passenger 

 on board an English ship, observed the sailors fishing without 

 success, when we were surrounded by bonitos. Without 

 saying a word, he went to a hen-coop, procured some feathers 

 and a hook, made a rough sort of fly, and soon caught more 

 fish than could be useful to the company. Others tried the 

 same means, but without equal success. The most extraor- 

 dinary instance of perseverance in this way which I ever met 

 with, was afforded by an Indian boy about thirteen or four- 

 teen years of age. Having begged a hook, he sat himself 

 down, and from junk patiently spun himself a line, well 

 adapted to the size of the hook, and strong beyond what could 

 be expected from such materials. For a float, he took the 

 thigh bone of a fowl which had been picked at dinner, worked 



