THE THAMES TROUT. 283 



had, too, and had been too clever for me, for he carried it away, but not 

 before I managed to prick him. Oh, evil luck ! oh, cursed mishap ! 



There was nothing for it but to desist that morning. Like all high-bred 

 creatures, the perceptions of a Thames trout are keenly sensitive, and I 

 had taught him a lesson not to be easily forgotten. The prick of the hook 

 did it. I never saw him feed again but once, and that was his last 

 attempt. 



In vain after this did I attempt to claim my coy trout by every method 

 I could devise. Spinning, trolling, and the worm, I am sorry to say, 

 were tried, and each one proved unavailing, notwithstanding the moat 

 intense perseverance. The fish still came home to "roost," for I could, 

 as of old, just see his majestic form in the covert it had chosen for a 

 home. But when it fed I knew not. I noticed, however, a sort of rest- 

 lessness in its habits. From being a perfectly stationary hermit it shifted 

 its position occasionally, sometimes so far ahead as to be accessible from 

 above stream. 



One day a thought struck me, and, midday as it was, I set about 

 putting it in practice. Our house contained black beetles, or, more 

 properly, cockroaches, galore ; and, when the cat was not occupied in 

 chasing and eating them, they were usually taken in hand by myself and 

 poisoned. It is not generally known, but the common fern is a first-rate 

 poison for them. They eat it greedily, and so passionately fond of it are 

 they that if a brother cockroach arrives on the scene too late by reason 

 of it having been eaten, he will occasionally set about devouring his 

 confreres who are perchance dead or dying from its effects. The night 

 previous I had vented my hatred of them as indicated, and the result had 

 been nearly a pint of cockroaches, dead and dying. Now, cockroaches 

 are caviare to trout of the brook, why not of the river Thames P 



No sooner the thought, than the rod is put together. The finest gut 

 bottom is attached, a No. 7 hook thereto spliced, and a cockroach lightly 

 impaled. By standing on the crown of a willow, some 15yds. off, I could 

 see the head of my quarry, though he could scarcely see me by reason of 

 the natural exigencies of the laws governing refraction and reflection. 

 Very quietly I let my bait down on the water, and paid out the fine line 

 to within 3ft. or 4ft. of the nose of the trout. Now had arrived the time 

 for finessing ; with the utmost circumspection, with a slow, fluent, gliding 

 motion, the cockroach was lowered on on on till within a few inches of 

 the fish' s mouth. Then I withdrew it, as if to take it entirely from the water. 

 No notice took he. My heart again failed me, well nigh at least, for I 

 had tried by this time persistently for some weeks to capture this lordly 

 fish, and as each failure was added to its predecessor my desire of pos- 

 session naturally grew greater and greater. However, I very, very gently 



