THE FLOAT 117 



still strive after floats which are good to look at both 

 in line and colour. A slender body of cork on a 

 porcupine quill can be very gratifying. For colours 

 give me scarlet above and green below, with a little 

 knob of sealing-wax at the top of the quill. This last 

 is for use as well as ornament. The uninitiated might 

 suppose that nothing could well be more visible to the 

 angler than the quill's natural white tip sticking out of 

 the water, but what with the dazzle of sun and flicker 

 of wavelets it is often very hard to see, and it is 

 surprising how the little red knob helps the eye. Also, 

 with its aid one can gauge a bite very nicely. Properly 

 poised, there is half an inch above water, and the half 

 of this is white, the half red. When the white has dis- 

 appeared you have a noble bite as roach bites go, and 

 you may strike at once. It is not often that the roach 

 of these degenerate days take one's float right down 

 and out of sight. For evening fishing, when the last 

 faint light is on the water, a black-headed float is most 

 visible. 



At one time I used to fish occasionally through the 

 dark hours, and I was mightily puzzled to find a float 

 which I could see at all after dark. I tried adding a 

 cone of white paper to the tip, and at first deluded 

 myself into the idea that it was visible ; but when, 

 after intently watching it for a long time, I discovered 

 that I was really gazing at nothing, I gave it up. The 

 discovery was due to a horrid eel, which had taken my 

 float off in a wholly opposite direction. Incidentally 

 that eel very nearly made me give up night-fishing 

 also. Let him who doubts try to unhook an eel among 

 thistles by the light of the stars and a wax match. 



