132 FISHES AND FISHING. 



at the outlet of the brook, and as the water was re- 

 duced, nets were drawn through the deep holes, and 

 the fish thus pressed endeavoured to escape over the 

 shallows ; a large pike was doing so, when one of the 

 men who had old shoes on, but no stockings, having 

 a basketful of fish in his hands, tried to kick him 

 ashore ; and whether the man brought his leg against 

 the pike, or the fish bit him, as he declared, I cannot 

 positively say, but certainly the man's leg was badly 

 wounded ; seeing this, and the blood flowing, I ran 

 into the water, and with a stick killed the pike, 

 which weighed nearly seventeen pounds. In " Bent- 

 ley's Miscellany " for July, 1851, it is stated that 

 men wading in a pond have been attacked by this 

 freshwater shark. Lord Milsington, seeing a large 

 carp coming over the shallow, also went into the 

 water, borrowing my stick, and killed him, weighing 

 above twelve pounds, and an immense quantity of 

 arge fish were taken by the nets. 



A few days after this, whilst the water was still 

 down, and there was a dam across the tumbling bay 

 of the Guildford Canal, some of our men, all work 

 being suspended, and some of the navigation men, 

 who had finished their part of the repairs, agreed to 

 lave the bay-hole dry, in order to get the fish. The 

 hole was like a large inverted cone, built so with 

 large chalk stones, but not cemented together. The 



