102 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



manner in front of his head, the great art is to repeat the pro- 

 cess with still more emphasis behind his tail. The philosopher 

 quoted from asserts that where this plan has been pursued in 

 a scientific and persevering spirit he has seldom or never 

 known it to fail ! 



One of the delights of pike-spinning over such shallow 

 waters as those I have been mentioning, is that you are able to 

 see the approach of the enemy, and even to some extent to 

 calculate his dimensions by the wave which he carries in front 

 of him as he rushes after the bait This, it may truly be said, 

 is an excitement added, and one which cannot be had in any 

 other branch of the art except, perhaps, in a lesser degree, in 

 chub fishing. 



The moment is, indeed, not only exciting, but critical, and 

 is a severe trial to the nerves of a young beginner. The incli- 

 nation is almost irresistible to check or entirely stop the action 

 of the bait so as to let the pursuer get hold of it. On the con- 

 trary this is the very moment when the speed of the bait should 

 be preserved unchecked at its normal rate of progression. The 

 moment the bait is checked it ceases to be a spinning-bait, 

 and becomes a mere dead gudgeon or dead dace, and having 

 no further attraction or incitement for predacious fish 



You are Ugudwash, the sun-fish, 

 You are not the fish I wanted 



to misapply Hiawatha's angling expedition. The rest of the 

 passage is so charmingly original that really, even at the risk 

 of being ' impertinent ' (to use the word in its Pickwickian 

 sense) I must quote it, the more so as the hero of a part of 

 the adventure is ' the pike, Kenozha.' 



HIAWATHA'S FISHING. 



Forth upon the Gitche Gumce, 

 On the shining Big-Sea-Watcr, 

 With his fishing-line of cedar, 

 Of the twisted bark of cedar, 



