TIME AND SEASON. 143 



centre, or nicked out at the side. Minnows when car- 

 ried in a dead state, if fresh, should be deposited among 

 moss or grass slightly moistened ; if salted, they may 

 be placed for convenience in a tin box similar to what 

 is used in worm-fishing, and suspended in the same 

 manner by a belt round the waist of the angler. I may 

 mention, by the way, that I have no great opinion of 

 the salted minnow. It is a troublesome bait to deal 

 with, readily torn and disfigured in fastening, dull in 

 the eye and colour, and an uncertain spinner. 



I have thus, at some length, discussed two or three 

 of the most important matters connected with this 

 branch of the art, and shall now offer some instructions 

 as to the time when, the places where, and the manner 

 how, it ought to be pursued. And first, as to the time 

 and season adapted for minnow and parr-tail fishing. 

 I have already stated that large, hungry trout may be 

 taken as early as March or even February, but in these 

 months, the generality of them have not yet begun to 

 frequent the beats and shallows, although during mild 

 weather, invited into them by the appearance of surface 

 food. Floods also, then as at other times, compel trout 

 to be active and abandon their places of refuge, and it 

 is on the first subsiding of these that the minnow-troller 

 generally meets with success. 



I may mention here, however, that although, in my 

 younger years, eager to capture individuals of the 

 finny tribe whenever I could, be it in the middle of 

 Christmas or on one of the dog-days, I am now con- 

 tent to limit my trouting expeditions, in a great mea- 

 sure, to the season in which these fish are fit for use ; 

 indeed, to slaughter them indiscriminately, during all 

 the months of the year, as may be done by the use of 

 the salmon-roe and pastes made from it, I consider 



