2i 4 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART n. 



believe me a good one, sixteen inches long, I warrant him : I 

 have taken none such this year. 



VIAT. I never saw a grayling before look so black. 



PiSC. Did you not ? Why then, let me tell you, that you 

 never saw one before in right season ; for then a grayling is very 

 black about his head, gills, and down his back, and has his 

 belly of a dark grey, dappled with black spots, as you see this 

 is ; and I am apt to conclude that from thence he derives his 

 name of umber. Though I must tell you this fish is past his 

 prime, and begins to decline, and was in better season at Christ- 

 mas than he is now. But move on : for it grows towards dinner- 

 time ; and there is a very great and fine stream below, under that 

 rock, that fills the deepest pool in all the river, where you are 

 almost sure of a good fish. 



VIAT. L^t himcome, I'll try a fall with him. But I had 

 thought that the grayling Ti^^'He^rraTwaysTn season with the 

 trout, and had come in and gone out with him. 



PiSC. Oh, no ! assure yourself a grayling is a winter fish; but 

 such a one as would deceive any but such as know him very well 

 indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst season, is so firm, and 

 will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is very good meat at 

 all times ; but in his perfect season (which, by the way, none but 

 an overgrown grayling will ever be), I think him so good a fish, 

 as to be little inferior to the best trout that ever I tasted in my 

 life. 



VIAT. Here's another skipjack; and I have raised five or six 

 more at least while you were speaking. Well, go thy way, little 

 Dove ! thou art the finest river that ever I saw, and the fullest 

 of fish. Indeed, sir, I like it so well that I am afraid you will be 

 troubled with me once a year, so long as we two live. 



PiSC. I am afraid I shall not, sir: but were you once here a 

 May or a June, if. good sport would tempt you, I should then 

 expect you would sometimes see me; for you would then say it 

 was a fine river indeed, if you had once seen the sport at the 

 height. 



VIAT. Which I will do, if I live, and that you please to give 

 me leave. There was one, and there another. 



