THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 89 



a needle : the back of it with very sad French green silk, and 

 paler green silk towards the belly, shadowed as perfectly as you 

 can imagine, just as you see a minnow ;* the belly was wrought 

 also with a needle, and it was a part of it of white silk, and 

 another part of it with silver thread ; the tail and fins were of a 

 quill, which was shaven thin ; the eyes were of two little black 

 beads, and the head was so shadowed, and all of it so curiously 

 wrought, and so exactly dissembled, that it would beguile any 

 sharp -sighted trout in a swift stream. And this minnow I will 

 now shew you ; look, here it is; and if you like it, lend it you, 

 to have two or three made by it, for they be easily carried about 

 an angler, and be of excellent use : for note, that a large trout 

 will come as fiercely at a minnow, as the hifjhest mettled hawk 

 doth seize on a partridge, or a greyhound on a hare. I have 

 been told that 160 minnows have been found in a trout's belly ; 

 either the trout had devoured so many, or the miller, that gave it 

 a friend of mine, had forced them down his throat after he had 

 taken him. 



Now for flies, which are the third bait wherewith trouts are usu- 

 ally taken. You are to know, that there are so many sorts of flies 

 as there be of fruits : I will name vou but some of them, as the 

 dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red-fly, the moor-fly, the tawny-fly, the 

 shell-fly, the cloudy or blackish-fly, the flag-fly, the vine-fly : 

 there be of flies, caterpillars, and canker- flies, and bear-flies, and 

 indeed too many either for me to name or for you to remember : 

 and their breeding is so various and wonderful, that 1 might easily 

 amaze mvself and tire vou in a relation of them. 



* Artificial minnows are (so far as trout fishing is concerned) much like 

 Peter Pindar's razors, better for the tackle shop than the stream or lake. 

 There is an artificial spinning bait of later invention, called a Kill-devil, 

 which is made of leather, silk, &,c., somewhat resembling a caterpillar, but 

 must appear in the swift water like a bright minnow. It is rigged with 

 seven hooks, cunningly disposed. The English books say that this bait ex- 

 cites the trout to such a degree, that it is considered too murderous for fair 

 angling, and forbidden in many preserved waters. It may be procured 

 at the Conroys' tackle shop, Fulton street. New York (where every- 

 thing the angler requires is to be found of the best quality), and at other 

 places where a good assortment is kept. My experiments with it have 

 been quite unsuccessful. — Am. Ed. 



