THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 33 



Artificial Minnows are deceptive imitations of the 

 living fish, to be used by spinning or trolling in the capture 

 of the larger varieties salmon, lake trout, trout, and pike. 

 These are made of different materials glass, horn, metal, 

 bone, wood, silk, indiarubber, quill, and soleskin. An im- 

 mense number of patterns have come into existence since 

 " Old Isaac Walton's " time; many of them have disappeared 

 as useless, but there still remain about half-a-dozen which 

 hold their own against all comers. Among these may 

 be mentioned the " Phantoms," the " Devon," and the 

 "Quill" Minnows. The great desideratum in artificial min- 

 nows is not only good spinning qualities, but a proper 

 appearance, approaching that of the real fish. Walton had a 

 very good idea of what was wanted, and out of the materials 

 which the times he lived in afforded, he no doubt made a 

 very successful lure. His description of it is worth noting, 

 written as it is in the quaint and beautiful language of which 

 he was such a master. The minnow "was made by a 

 handsome woman that had a fine hand (and a live minnow 

 lying by her), the body of cloth, the back of it of very sad 

 French green silk and a paler green silk towards the belly, 

 shadowed as perfectly as you can imagine, just as you see a 

 minnow ; the belly was wrought also with a needle, and it 

 was a part of it white silk, and another part of it of silver 

 thread ; the tail and the fins were made of a quill, which 

 was shaven thin ; the eyes were of two little black beads, 

 and the head was so shadowed, and all of it so curiously 

 wrought, and so exactly dissembled, that it would beguile 

 any sharp-sighted trout in a swift stream." There is a very 

 good artificial minnow made from a quill, the invention of a 

 clever angler, the late Mr. Garnett, of Kendal, but it 

 has been much improved, and for trout fishing in either 



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