67 



The WATER-WORM. This is an admirable bait, and 

 is ready for use so soon as taken, being beautifully clear, 

 lively, and of an excellent medium size for most kinds 

 of fishes. It is of a clear blueish white, or, occasionally, 

 of a very light purple, growing more red about the head. 

 By turning up the long slimy moss which grows on 

 weirs, &c. over which the water does not always run, 

 especially when the mill is going, and which is rarely 

 covered more than one or two inches deep of the passing 

 water, this kind of worm may often be found in great 

 numbers. 



The fishes seize it with avidity ; no doubt, from being 

 more habituated to it, by the quantity which, when the 

 rivers are much raised by rains, &c. are washed out of 

 the moss into the falls below, where generally the largest 

 and boldest fish are to be found. 



I have often kept them for a while in some of their 

 own moss, constantly wetted 5 but I had reason to think, 

 such were very inferior to those recently taken from the; 

 weir. It is true they lived, as did such as I preserved in 

 moss from the common j but they were less lively, and I 

 thought, although the fish did not refuse them altogether, 

 that they were deteriorated by confinement. 



Be particularly careful to lay in a sufficient stock of 

 worms before the frosts set in ; for, although you will be 

 able to find abundance wherewith to recruit your stock, 

 those taken after the above period will not prove so good 

 as what you had before. The reason is, that, as all sub* 

 stances are rendered brittle by severe cold (a circum- 

 stance from which even the bones in our bodies are not 

 exempt), so does the worm become very liable to snap, 

 and to give way. 



It 



