J96 THE COMPLETE ANGLEtl. PART I. 



dead holes, where these great old Trouts usually lie, 

 near to their holds : For you are to note, that tJie gnat 

 old Trout is both subtil and fearful, and lies close all 

 day, and does not usually stir out of his hold : but lies 

 in it as close in the day, as the timorous hare does in 

 her form ; for the chief feeding of either is seldom in 

 the day, but usually in the night, and then the great 

 Trout feeds very boldly. 



And you must fish for him with a long line ; and not 

 a little hook ; and let him have time to gorge your hook, 

 for he docs not usually forsake if, as he oft will in the 

 day-fishing. And if the night be not dark; then, fish 

 so with an artificial fly of a light colour, and at the 

 snap : nay, he will sometimes rise at a dead mouse, or 

 a piece of cloth, or any thing that seems to swim across 

 the water, or to be in motion. This is a choice way : 

 but I have not oft used it ; because it is void of the plea- 

 sures that such days as these that we two now enjoy, af- 

 ford an angler. 



And you are to know, that in Hampshire which I 

 think exceeds all England, for swift, shallow, clear, 

 pleasant brooks, and store of Trouts they use to catch 

 Trouts, in the night, by the light of a torch or straw ; 

 which when they have discovered, they strike with a 

 Trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of way they 

 catch very many : but 1 would not believe it till I 

 was an eye-witness of it, nor do I like it now I have 

 seen it." 



Ven. But, niaster ! do not Trouts see us, in the 

 night ? 



Pise. Yes ; and hear, and smell too, both then and 

 in the day-time. For Gesner observes, the Otter smells 

 a fish forty furlongs off him in the water : and that it 

 may be true, seems to be affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, 

 in the eighth century of his Natural History ; who, 

 there, proves that waters may be the medium of sounds, 

 by demonstrating it thus ; " That if you knock two 

 <6 stones together very deep under the water, those that 

 c< stand on a bank near to that place, may hear the noise 

 u without any diminution of it by the water." He 

 also offers the like experiment concerning the letting an 



