FISHES AND FISHING. 37 



rapidly, but generally lose the worm, for the barbel 

 will take hold of its head, and strip it clean off the 

 hook ; to prevent this, have a smaller hook whipped 

 on the gut, a little above the larger one, and hook the 

 head of the worm on that, and you will sometimes 

 catch the barbel with that hook. It is the natural 

 instinct of all fish, many birds, and reptiles, who, if 

 they do not seize their prey by the head at first, 

 always turn and swallow it headforemost. "When a 

 barbel gives two or three pulls, strike quickly, and 

 you are tolerably sure to hook him. If you angle 

 late in the evening, with two rods from a bank, place 

 a small squirrel's bill on the point of the rod which 

 is lying down. 



The improvement in the navigation of the Thames 

 has caused a great deterioration of it as far as angling 

 is concerned ; when a boy, I have gone into an osier 

 ait, with a tolerably long rod, a short line, a few 

 cockchafers, and screened by the leaves, could pick 

 out of a shoal as many chub as I chose ; or more re- 

 cently, with an artificial fly, I have filled a large bag 

 with dace, six to eight ounces each, and chub from 

 one to five pounds; besides occasionally, though rarely 

 a trout of a pound, or pound and a half, during a walk 

 by the side of the Thames fromWeybridge to Sunbury. 

 The most expert angler could not do one quarter, or 

 a sixteenth as much at the present day. 



