THE CHOB. 43 



rising chub. Away in the distance I can see, though dimly, 

 the tip of a village church spire, trees, bushes, and hedges 

 seem to merge indistinctly together, while the river flowing 

 past seems, on the opposite side, to be dark and mysterious. 

 Putting my hand carefully down my line and cast to feel if 

 my white moth is all right, I sweep it out into the river, 

 and wait, for I cannot see it. Ha ! a brave tug, and the 

 next moment a chub is gallantly fighting against odds for 

 life and liberty. In a few more minutes, however, he goes 

 in the bag to join some three or four more of his comrades 

 in distress taken by the same means. But hark ! what is 

 that ? The village church clock is striking, clear and distinct 

 through the stillness of the night sound the strokes — 

 eleven ; time to pack up, thinks I, and trudge home, for I 

 am a few miles away ; and when I arrive there, I am called 

 by the before-mentioned classic name, " What a fool you are 

 to stay until this time of night, just for two or three brace 

 of those things " (chub), is the observation ; but I can for- 

 give them, for they don't know of the sweet intercourse I 

 have had with Nature in her midsummer night's beauty. 

 None but sportsmen can enjoy these things as they ought to 

 be enjoyed ; and I am weak enough to say that fishing on a 

 summer's evening, with the moth for chub, is a sport, for me 

 at least, of the highest order. 



The chub is a member of the carp tribe, and his scientific 

 name is Cyprinus Cephalus. Izaak Walton used to call 

 him " Cheven," " Chevin," and " Chevender," and by some 

 of these names he is still known in certain districts. Michael 

 Drayton, writing nearly three centuries ago on the Trent and 

 its fish, says, " The chub (whose neater name which some 

 a chevin call), food to the tyrant pike (most being in his 

 power), who for their numerous store he most doth them 

 devour." The chub seems to be set upon by more than one 

 writer ; even the good and gentle Izaak Walton says of him, 



