226 THE TENCH. 



and difficulty, get my bait into the midst of a very multitude of 

 fishes, they would suddenly rush away from it, or pass it by un- 

 heeded ; or if one did bite, I was sure to miss him, or if hooked he 

 would run off with half my line, and all this time though burning 

 with anxious haste, my every motion seemed impeded by some power 

 I Strove in vain to controul ; and at last though I did actually hook 

 one that seemed a very Goliah both for strength and bigness, yet 

 he diminished away by the time I landed him to a little disgusting 

 reptile of a water-newt utterly worthless and unprofitable. How 

 long these visions might have continued I can't pretend to say, for 

 I was aroused in the midst of them by my schoolfellow, and al- 

 most before he could inform me it was time to rise, I was out of 

 bed; when not having arrived at a shaving age, my toilet was 

 very soon completed. 



It is seldom indeed that the reality equals the anticipation, and 

 so it proved here ; for to our no small chagrin we found on arri- 

 ving at the pond side, that the whole surface was so completely 

 covered with the plant of the water lily as scarcely to present a 

 single open space ; and where one occurred, we generally found 

 the water beneath choked up with the stems and branches of the 

 plant : so that it was not without extreme difficulty we could find 

 a single spot in which we could get in our lines. At length, after 

 searching around, we discovered two small open spaces, both per- 

 fectly clear to the very bottom, and within a few yards of each 

 other into which we threw, and most patiently did we watch our 

 floats for a considerable time, and all to no purpose, till eventually 

 mine sunk gradually down and disappeared, when in my eagerness 

 to secure the fish, I struck so violently as to break asunder the 

 line just above the float, and I saw it no more. This caused me 

 to feel just as an angler, possessing all honest Izaak's ardour and 

 none of his patience, will always feel under such circumstances ; 

 added to which this was the only float I possessed, nor had my 

 companion a spare one with which he could supply me. I 

 contrived however to make a piece of common bottle cork answer 

 the purpose, and putting on a fresh hook again ventured my for- 

 tune in the self-same spot. After this an hour or so expired before 

 we had either of us another bite, till at last my companion's float 

 sunk leisurely under, and he had the good luck to pull out a little 

 tench, when for the first time in my life I was enabled to examine 

 a specimen of the kind ; for till then I had only seen a represen- 



