9K FISHES AND FISHING. 



put the ground-bait in very gently, so many fish will 

 not be attracted to the spot, as soon as if you throw it 

 in more forcibly, because the agitation of the water 

 being greater, it is felt at a greater distance ; if a 

 handful of gravel be thrown into a clear part of a 

 river, you will see in a few minutes a number of 

 fish sailing about as if looking out for food. Gud- 

 geons are attracted in shoals by raking the bed of the 

 river, and there can be little doubt but the disturb- 

 ance thus given to the water and the gravel, causes 

 them to be attracted to the spot, through the vibra- 

 tion occasioned to their ossicula and nerves, and 

 instinct teaches them to search for worms, insects, 

 &c. If you approach the bank of a river, roughly, 

 the fish will rapidly retreat to a distance ; this is 

 from the tremulous motion given to the earth ^being 

 communicated to the water. 



The following fact will prove the truth of this as- 

 sertion : — One day I was very successful in taking 

 trout at the head of a piece of water, through which 

 a branch of the river Test had been artificially di- 

 rected, and was walking round a plantation to go to the 

 lower part of the same water. In order to nourish 

 these young trees, several channels had been cut, so 

 as to send, occasionally, a portion from the upper part 

 of the stream to their roots, by means of a sluice ; the 

 water ran into the lower part of this species of lake 



