ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 195 



The writer of this poem seems to have anticipated 

 the ingenious theory, enunciated by Sir Edward 

 Grey in his charming book on fly-fishing. In 

 describing the efforts of the carp to escape from the 

 nets of the fishermen Buncombe, translating Vaniere, 

 writes : 



Now motionless she lies beneath the flood, 

 Holds by a weed, or sinks into the mud. 



With Sir Edward Grey's theory, that a trout, when 

 hooked, plunges among the weeds and seizes them in 

 its mouth, in order to resist capture, I cannot agree. 

 The fact that a hooked trout instinctively rushes for 

 the shelter of the weeds, with its mouth pulled open 

 by the tension exerted by the angler's line, fully 

 accounts for weeds being occasionally found in its 

 mouth after its capture, especially when the incurved 

 shape of a trout's teeth is taken into consideration. 



