106 MINNOW TROLLING. 



gether making in fact nearly one sixth of his whole weight. This 

 is a convincing proof, if further proof were wanting, of how little 

 cold blooded animals are susceptible of pain, and that wounds 

 which would terminate mortally among animals of warmer blood, 

 are little felt or regarded by them ; for what warm blooded animal 

 is there, I would ask, be he as ravenous as he may, who, having 

 attempted to bolt some ponderous article of food and finding it 

 stick fast in his throat as if fixed there by a two-inch spike nail, 

 would attempt to get such another morsel down, or in fact long 

 survive the effects of the first ? 



Since the above occurrence I received an account of two cases 

 somewhat similar, and both equally surprising. A very old friend 

 of mine to whom I had mentioned my adventure soon after its 

 occurrence, happened not long afterwards to accompany Lord 

 Vivian on a fishing excursion, to whom he related my adventure 

 with the desperate little trout in the manner I have above recount- 

 ed ; when his lordship mentioned two instances which certainly 

 were most extraordinary, and which, with his permission, I now 

 lay before my readers. Lord Vivian, who is a first rate fisherman, 

 was spinning a minnow in the neighbourhood of Guildford, when 

 he saw a lengthy trout dart forth and seize upon his bait, which he 

 succeeded in hooking, but was surprised to find how tamely the fish 

 submitted to his fate ; in fact suffering himself to be drawn like a 

 mere string of weeds unresistingly to the bank, where he was 

 safely landed almost without a struggle ; when it was discovered, 

 that though long enough for a four pounder, he did not weigh 

 two, being a sick fish utterly out of season, and so he was, as he 

 ought to have been, forthwith recommitted to the place from 

 whence he came; and yet, wonderful to say, the very next cast 

 the same identical trout again seized the bait, was again hooked 

 and secured, and again returned to his native element. What be- 

 came of him afterwards, or whether his gallant captor essayed to 

 tempt him a third time my informant did not state. 



The other adventure occurred in sea fishing, but as it happened 

 while the vessel was under way ploughing her course across the 

 British Channel, the circumstance seems more wonderful. At the 

 time I speak of, Lord Vivian and one of his sons, (the Honorable 

 Major Vivian) were fishing for mackerel from his lordship's yacht, 

 but being unprovided with fish bait, a sixpence with a hole bored 

 through it was attached to the hook, which indeed is a very 



