188 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



athwart the lower End, and pointing so near to one 

 another as above, the Fish are left within, in about 

 a Foot or Foot and a Half of Water only. 



When the Tide is thus out, the Fish which are 

 generally Salmon in the Season, and Salmon Peall 

 when the Salmon Season is over, are all to be seen ; 

 then they place a shove Net at the end of a Pole, at 

 the lower end of the Dock or Mill Tail, and turn in 

 a Dog, who is bred to the Trade, at the upper End, 

 and he drives all the Fish into the Net, and so 

 dextrous are they at their business, that if a Fish 

 gets into a little Hole or under a Stone, as if it were 

 unwilling to be driven on to its Ruin, the unlucky 

 Curs will wrock them out with their Feet. 



Saunders relates a story of a countryman in 

 Somerset, who found a quantity of small fish in a 

 pool which had been left in a meadow by the sub- 

 sidence of a recent flood : under the impression that 

 they were gudgeon, he placed a bucketful of them 

 into his master's fish pond. It was after some time 

 discovered, when no fish could be obtained from the 

 pond, that these supposed young gudgeon were small 

 pike, who in the intervening time had consumed all 

 the fish in the pond. 



Saunders also describes an elaborate and ingenious 

 way for catching a trout which lies in the middle of 

 the stream. A block of water-soaked or weighted 

 timber is sunk in the middle of the river: in this 

 block there is previously fixed a dull brass or iron 

 pulley. The trout soon takes up his position under 

 the shelter of the piece of wood ; then one day, a long 

 piece of line having been previously threaded through 





