FISHES AND FISHING. 101 



observed a long, black fisb, lying at the bottom. I 

 shewed it to my friend to whom the water belonged, 

 who had just joined me. He expressed a great wish 

 to have this fish. I requested him to send his gar- 

 dener to me with a worm or two : my friend brought 

 them himself. Meantime, I had changed my tackle. I 

 then baited with a worm, and, by the same method as 

 I have just mentioned as having tried in the "Wandle, 

 in less than five minutes after, I landed the fish, a 

 trout, quite black, and considerably longer than one 

 I had previously caught in those waters, weighing 

 full two pounds and three quarters ; but this poor 

 fish was so thin, that it weighed only one pound and 

 three ounces. On examination, we found he had 

 lost one of his eyes by some violence, and the sight 

 of the other was completely gone, having become 

 opaque, and looked as if there were a cataract in it. 

 This unfortunate fish not being able to see, and feast 

 upon the flies on the surface, whereby he would have 

 become fat, and in good season, — for flies are abso- 

 lutely necessary to the nourishment and perfection 

 of trout, at the proper time of the year — was obliged 

 to grovel at the bottom, and feed on such food there, 

 as his smell and taste directed him to adopt. 



I often thought of this unfortunate trout, and his 

 miserable state of starvation, which would soon have 

 caused his death, but could form no reasonable opinion 



