40 THE BARBEL. 



" tug." The capture also depends, in some inscrut- 

 able manner, on the locality. There are barbel 

 holes swarming with fish, which may be seen at all 

 times chasing one another about, turning on their 

 broad backs, and performing all sorts of clumsy 

 antics in the cool depths they rejoice in, but which 

 are never known to take a bait. They are like the 

 Laird of Macfarlane's geese, which are recorded to 

 have " liked their play better than their meat." 

 There is a barbel-hole near the mill-tail by Cavers- 

 ham Lock of this unproductive nature. We will 

 venture to say there is a ton weight of fish within 

 a very moderate space, but after long and fruitless 

 endeavours, the attempt to catch them has been 

 given up as hopeless by all the fishermen in that 

 neighbourhood. 



The mode of fishing is peculiar. The barbel- 

 pitch must be baited for several days or nights 

 previously with quarts of great dew-worms em- 

 bedded in clay. The fish collect in great numbers 

 to feed upon the dainty morsels, and having grown 

 bold from impunity, fall, occasionally at least, vic- 

 tims to the angler, who offers them just the same 

 thing, with the slight addition of a barbed hook 

 attached to a slender line within each. A hun- 

 dredweight and upwards may thus be captured in 

 a morning ; but the line is often used in vain, the 



