70 LIVE-BAIT FISHING. 



out of sight, reappearing at the mouth of one of 

 his numerous holes on the distant bank. Ten 

 minutes have elapsed, and now you strike pretty 

 sharply, and the wretched jack, who has swallowed 

 without compunction what he considered a helpless 

 fish, his appointed prey, finds the barbed hook 

 inextricably fixed in his vitals or in the lower part 

 of his throat. Under such circumstances the 

 pluckiest of fish could not be expected to show 

 sport. The pike is never very plucky, and on a 

 dead-gorge hook shows very little pluck indeed. 

 On the whole, many, I think most modes of fishing 

 are preferable to trolling. 



LIVE-BAIT FISHING. 



Predaceous birds and beasts affect certain locali- 

 ties with surprising constancy. There are jungles 

 in India, and, thank goodness ! coverts in England, 

 that always hold a tiger or a fox respectively, what- 

 ever the number of either that may have been 

 killed out of them. Shoot a pair of falcons or of 

 owls, if you can find it in your heart to do so, and 

 in a very short time a fresh pair will assuredly 

 take their places on the same cliff or in the same 

 hollow tree. 



The same rule holds good, if possible, more 

 invariably, with respect to fish. Whether salmon, 



