THE COMPLETE ANGLER. ] 19 



their holes.* And the manner of taking them is on the top of 

 the water with a great lob or garden-worm, or rather two, which 

 you are to fish with in a place where the waters run somewhat 

 quietly, for in a stream the bait will not be so well discerned. 

 I say, in a quiet or dead place, near to some swift, there draw 

 your bait over the top of the water, to and fro, and if there be 

 a good Trut in the hole, he will take it, especially if the night 

 be dark, for then he is bold, and lies near the top of the water, 

 watching the motion of any frog, or water-rat, or mouse, that 

 swims betwixt him and the sky : these he hunts after, if he sees 

 the water but wrinkle or move in one of these dead holes, where 

 these great old Trouts usually lie, near to their holds ; for you 

 are to note, that the great old Trout is both subtle and fearful, 

 and lies close all day, and does not usually stir out of his hold, 

 but lies in it as close in the day as the timorous hare does in 

 her form ; for the chief feeding of either is seldom in the day, 

 but usually in the night, and then the great Trout feeds very 

 boldly. 



And you must fish for him with a strong line, and not a little 

 hook ; and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he does 

 not usually forsake it, as he oft will in the day -fishing. And if 

 the night be not dark, then fish so with an artificial fly of a 

 light colour, and at the snap : nay, he will sometimes rise at a 

 dead mouse, or a piece of cloth, or any thing that seems to swim 

 across the water, or to be in motion. This is a choice way, but 

 I have not oft used it, because it is void of the pleasures that 

 such days as these, that we two now enjoy, afford an angler. 



And you are to know, that in Hampshire, which I think 

 exceeds all England for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant brooks, 

 and store of Trouts, they used to catch Trouts in the night, by 

 the light of a torch or straw, which, when they have discovered, 

 they strike with a Trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of 

 way they catch very many : but I would not believe it till I was 

 an eye-witness of it, nor do I like it now I have seen it.f 



Venator. But, master, do not Trouts see us in the night ? 



Piscator. Yes, and hear and smell too, both then and in the 

 day time : for Gesner observes, the Otter smells a fish forty 

 furlongs off him in the water : and that it may be true, seems 

 to be affirmed by Sir Francis Bacon, in the Eighth Century of 

 his Natural History, who there proves that waters may be the 

 medium of sounds, by demonstrating it thus, ' ' that if you knock 



* The holes here meant are not pools, as the same word means below, 

 but under the brow of a bank, under the hollow of a stone, or the shelter 

 of a tree root, where I have often, when a boy, surprised very large 

 Trouts, and caught them with the hand. J. R. 



f This, when practised with regard to Salmon, is called Black Pithing, 

 in Scotland, and has been graphically described by Sir Walter Scott in 

 Guy Mannering. 1 hare myself been more than once engaged in it J. R. 



