252 ON SURREY HILLS. 



Gudgeons, miller's thumbs, loaches, and the silvery 

 nimble minnows are the children's fish. Either one 

 or other of these forms the first capture of the young- 

 sters. The sticklebacks, in the southern counties 

 that are best known to me, are not admitted into 

 the fishing list They are captured by the hands. 

 I know that as baits for perch, in spite of all that 

 has been said about their formidable spines they are 

 very effectual. Eels, I think, can hardly be con- 

 sidered as a sporting fish : such of my angling friends 

 as have accidentally captured one whilst seeking 

 other fry have been sorely tempted to speak un- 

 advisedly with their lips, their top joint being 

 smashed, and the line all in a knotted tangle. 



It pleases some men to promote the propagation 

 of the trout family in their many varieties, in locali- 

 ties where they have never been before, to the ban- 

 ishment of other fish, which have been for centuries 

 indigenous to those waters. For my part, I heartily 

 wish the trout was not so much to the front as he 

 now is. Still, those who own the water, or rather 

 the ground through which the waters run, have a 

 right, I suppose, to sweep all fish out of them if they 

 can, and to restock them with bull-frogs, if such be 



