ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 165 



pike leaving the bait without gorging it ; he therefore 

 dispensed with the leaded shank to the trolling 

 hooks, merely placing a bullet on the hook within the 

 mouth of the bait 



The author considered it too tedious to wind up his 

 line on the winch in trolling : he preferred to gather 

 it up round the four fingers of his left hand in hanks 

 of about 8 or 10 inches long. 



It is interesting to compare Hewlett's account of 

 toads killing carp, with the account in Walton's book 

 of these fish being killed by frogs ; they both seem to 

 be referring to the same case : 



But how they so often come to decay unknown, is 

 mysterious ; nor can I dive into the cause of it, unless 

 it should be by such Destruction, an Acquaintance of 

 mine once told me, viz. That he had three Ponds very 

 near his House, one above another, well stor'd with 

 Carps, (no Pikes in them at all) which he preserved 

 with all the Care he could by staking, &c. only took 

 out now and then a Brace, or two, for his own Use ; 

 He was a Man well beloved of his Neighbours ; but 

 still he found his Ponds grew very thin of Fish, more 

 than formerly ; At last walking by the sides of his 

 Ponds, in the Spring of the Year, he spied a great 

 Water-Toad upon the very Head of one of his 

 biggest Carps ; which causing him to look more 

 narrowly about his Ponds, he found two more large 

 Carps with Toads, on their Heads in like manner ; 

 which he took up with a Net, Toads and all. And 

 from thence concluded, his Carps were destroy'd no 

 other way, without his Knowledge ; and thereupon 

 he made it his Business, to destroy all the Frogs and 

 Toads he could find about his Ponds, by laying them 

 dry, &c. And after a few Years, found his Fish to 



