16 THE FRESH- WATER TROUT. 



fr- 

 it the fish, an ordinary-sized trout, from whose jaws I 

 had abstracted it. 



A similar instance occurred to me in 1845, at the 

 Makerston fishings, on Tweed, when angling with the 

 worm in clear water. Happening to capture a trout of 

 about a pound and a half in weight, I observed, while 

 extracting the tackle from its mouth, the presence of 

 another hook, quite free from rust, and with a small 

 portion of gut attached to it. On mentioning this 

 afterwards to the fisherman's assistant, he inquired if I 

 had caught the trout at such a spot on the river, naming 

 the foot of a particular stream or gullet, the South 

 Clippers. He also described the hook and piece of gut 

 attached to it, remarking, that on the previous day, a 

 gentleman whom he attended had, while trouting with 

 the worm, his tackle broken by a large trout at the 

 place in question. His conjectures were correct. 



I could relate, were it necessary, other similar occur- 

 rences met with from time to time, which prove that 

 trout, although pricked and actually retaining the hook 

 in their lip or jaw, are not necessarily excited to dis- 

 trust or suspicion, or thereby, through the continued 

 irritation, deterred from feeding. Not two days ago, 

 during the week in which the above was penned, I 

 caught a trout presenting the same appearances as the 

 one just referred to, only that, in this case, the ab- 

 stracted hook, No. 12 Adlington, had actually been 

 swallowed; and as a proof of this having been done 

 recently, the worm with which it had been baited still 

 remained, occupying the shank and portion of broken 

 gut attached to it. The marvel to me is, how, with this 

 choking substance, (it was a lob-worm, and of large 

 dimensions,) filling its throat, the fish could live, much 

 less feed or swallow. Such instances, however, although 



