CHAP. XL THE THIRD DAY. 237 



manner, saving that he is to be scaled, which a trout never is : 

 and that must be done either with one's nails, or very lightly and 

 carefully with a knife, for fear of bruising the fish. And note, 

 that these kinds of fish, a trout especially, if he is not eaten 

 within four or five hours after he be taken, is worth nothing. 



But come, sir, I see you have dined ; and therefore, if you 

 please, we will walk down again to the little house, and there I 

 will read you a lecture of angling at the bottom. 



CHAPTER XL 



OF ANGLING AT THE BOTTOM FOR TROUT OR GRAYLING. 



VIAT. So, sir, now we are here, and set, let me have my 

 instructions for angling for trout and grayling at the bottom; 

 which though not so easy, so cleanly, nor (as 'tis said) so genteel 

 a way of fishing as with a fly, is yet, if I mistake not, a good 

 holding way, and takes fish when nothing else will. 



PlSC. You are in the right, it does so : and a worm is so sure 

 a bait at all times, that, excepting in a flood, I would I had laid 

 a thousand pounds that I killed fish, more or less with it, 

 winter or summer, every day throughout the year ; those days 

 always excepted, that upon a more serious account always ought 

 so to be. But not longer to delay you, I will begin, and tell 

 you, that angling at the bottom is also commonly of two sorts; 

 and yet there is a third way of angling with a ground-bait, and 

 to very great effect too, as shall be said hereafter ; namely, by 

 hand, or with a cork or float. 



That we call angling by hand is of three sorts. 



The first, with a line about half the length of the rod, a good 

 weighty plumb, and three hairs next the hook, which we call a 

 running-line, and with one large brandling, or a dew-worm of a 

 moderate size, or two small ones of the first, or any other sort, 

 proper for a trout, of which my father Walton has already given 

 you the names, and saved me labour; or, indeed, almost any 



