ON EAP1D STREAMS. 171 



First, then, as to the worms. I recommend 

 the little gilt- tail worm, which you may find in 

 any dung-heap where decomposition has been 

 going on for some time, but in which there is no 

 very high degree of temperature present. The 

 largest are usually found in pigs' dung; they 

 should be lively and bright-coloured -they cannot 

 well be mistaken, as the yellow about the tail and 

 the place where they are found would distinguish 

 them. These I think best, but if you run short 

 of them, any other small worm may be used, and 

 probablj^ the difference in success would be inap- 

 preciable. One is apt to get bigoted to one 

 particular idea, formed from habit or custom, and 

 if the result or application of it is good, perhaps 

 it is not unwise to adhere to it, rather than be 

 wasting time and opportunity in experimentalizing 

 with unknown and untried means. I have been 

 in the habit of using the little gilt-tail worm, and 

 believe it is at any rate as good a worm as can be 

 used. I have always felt satisfied with it, and 

 therefore had no desire to try the killing powers 

 of other worms. But there is one condition, 

 namely, the toughness of the worm, with which 

 is combined its liveliness, which will very materially 

 affect the success of the fisherman. To obtain 

 these conditions, the w.orms must be kept in moss, 

 not the common green moss of the trees or 

 hedge-rows, but the long, coarse, moist moss, 

 which you may find abundantly in any bog in 

 Devonshire, especially those small ones which are 

 raised in a slightly rounded mound above the level 



