262 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



a small rifle bullet about four feet above the 

 hooks, so as to sink the line in the swift current, 

 and to act as a mark to enable me, before it 

 could be carried away, to see the exact position 

 at the bottom that the hooks would take. 



My object Avas to get the fish on my side of 

 the snap-hooks, so that, by a sharp snatch of the 

 wrist, I should strike the hooks against them. 

 I cast my line in two or three times before I 

 could correctly ascertain how far the force of 

 the current would sway down the line. During 

 this operation the lampreys took not the least 

 notice of me, nor did the first two attempts I 

 made to strike them, both of which failed, disturb 

 them in their occupation. On the third attempt, 

 while the fish was screwing out the clay, I struck 

 it in the side, and landed a splendid lamprey, 

 — lifting it at once, and as carefully as I could, 

 from the bottom of the river, lest I should disturb 

 its companion, who Avas, at the moment, depositing 

 the clay it had taken at the usual spot where 

 both fish had placed tlieir former loads. 



The lamprey tlms bereft of its companion seemed 

 not in any way to notice the fact, nor even to 

 miss its fellow-labourer, but returned to bore out 



