FISHES AND FISHING. 25 



Our residence was about three-quarters of a mile 

 from the works, and in going there we had to cross a 

 tolerably wide river, the backwater, on a foot-bridge 

 about two feet wide, placed high above the water, on 

 account of the floods ; numberless bleak sported below. 

 I caught and killed a large quantity of house flies, 

 and when I went with my father I was much amused, 

 and I believe so was he, by seeing the fish take them. 

 Sometimes I threw in a large blow- fly, which would 

 go down the river a considerable way, and then dis- 

 appear with a sudden plunge ; these I soon learned 

 were taken by chub. I bent a pin, tied a long piece 

 of fine thread to it, put on a fly, and dropped it over 

 the bridge ; the bleak came up and looked at it, but 

 were not to be caught by such clumsy tackle. At 

 last, one day, just as my fly touched the water, a 

 large bleak, more careless, or more hungry, I suppose, 

 than the rest, took my fly, bent pin included; my 

 heart beat quickly, I pulled him nearly to the top of 

 the bridge, when, to my great disappointment, he 

 fell off*, and this was my dehut in angling. I told 

 one of my father's men, an experienced old fisherman, 

 of my loss, and he gave me a small fish-hook tied on 

 hair; this I attached to my thread line, and baiting 

 with a bluebottle fly, I had the great triumph of 

 hooking and killing a chub about six ounces weight. 

 I was then seven years old, and thought myself a 



