304 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



would have answered the purpose better), the fish was placed 

 upon it at full length on its side, and with a common dinner- 

 knife, to which a rough saw-edge had been given, the keeper, or 

 fisherman, who acted as operator, after making an incision im- 

 mediately above the tail, proceeded to insinuate the levelled edge 

 of his instrument below the skin, and by a dexterous movement 

 of the hand, detached, in three or four strokes, the whole of the 

 scaly coating lying betwixt the gills and caudal fins, strip after 

 strip. The fish was then turned over, and similarly operated on 

 on the other side. In fact, in the course of a few seconds, it was 

 entirely dispossessed of its slimy armour, and after being crimped 

 was despatched to the kitchen for further manipulation, prior to 

 its appearance at the dinner-table. 



THE GREETING OF THE SPRING. 



i. 



BLESS with me the spring-tide bland, 



All ye anglers of the valley ! 

 Wave aloof the slender wand, 



And around the oak-tree rally. 



ii. 

 Bless the birds that all along 



Send us such a merry greeting ; 

 To their measures of kind song 



Joyously our hearts are beating. 



in. 

 Fleeted now the winter snow 



From the foreheads of the mountains ; 

 And the ransom'd waters flow 



Freely from their teeming fountains. 



