VI. 



ROACH AND RUDD. 



I HAVE just been indulging in an hour's delicious 

 laziness, dreamily watching a shoal of silvery- 

 sided roach rising and falling towards the warm 

 sunlight. It is hard to understand why anglers 

 should call the roach a " coarse " fish, as he is 

 a very Beau Brummel of the waters. Coarse 

 he may be as compared with salmon and trout, 

 but in no other sense. The character of the 

 fish in the water is in keeping with his aristo- 

 cratic appearance out of it. All his movements 

 are slow and studied. Whatever he does he 

 does gracefully. He is never in a hurry, and 

 rarely commits himself. Isaak Walton says you 

 may take notice that, as the carp is accounted 

 the water-fox for cunning, so the roach is ac- 

 counted the water-sheep for his simplicity or 

 foolishness. For our part, we have never found 

 the roach as stupid as he is reputed. Let your 

 float be too big or too brightly coloured, too near 

 the bottom or the top, your bait not to his taste, 



