116 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



the motion of any frog or water-rat or mouse that swims between 

 him and the sky : these he hunts after, if he sees the water but 

 wrinkle or move in one of these dead holes, where these great 

 old trouts usually lie near to their holes ; for you are to note, that 

 the frreat old trout is both subtle 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 trouts feed very boldly. 



And you must fish for him with a strong line, and not a little 

 hook ; and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he does not 

 usually forsake it, 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 

 color, and at the snap : nay, he will sometimes rise at a dead 

 mouse, or a piece of cloth, or anything 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 pleasures that such days 

 as these, that we two now enjoy, afford 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.f This kind of way they catch very 

 many : but I would not believe it till I was an eye-witness of it ; 

 nor do I like it, now I have seen it. 



Vex. But, Master, do not trouts see us in the night 1 



Pisc. Yes, and hear, and smell:}: too, both then and in the day 



* Hold, a better word than " hole," which was substituted in the fifth 

 edition. 



t This has been shown in the Bib. Prel". to be among the very earliest 

 modes of fishing. — Jim. Ed. 



X The belief common among anglers that scented baits are more readily 

 taken, must be founded on observation, and favors the notion of fish having 

 the sense of smell. Sir Humphrey Davy speaics doubtfully on the subject, 

 and thinks the nostrils of fish intended to assist their respiration by the 

 propulsion of water through the gills : Sa/mo7iia, c. 11. As to their hear- 

 ing, it at least does not seem to be affected by sounds remote from the 

 water, or that produce a slight efl'ect on the element in which they move. 

 See Ronald's Fhf-Fisher's Entomology, p. (S.—Am. Ed. 



