158 WALTON AND COTTON ON DIPPING 



grass mixed with moss." In .fishing with the 

 grasshopper let your hook be whipped on with 

 green silk, on a link of fine gut stained of a light 

 green colour. 



I shall conclude this chapter with several ex- 

 tracts drawn from as many competent authorities. 

 Walton says to his scholar : " Go to the same 

 hole in which I caught my chub, where in most 

 hot days you will find a dozen or twenty chevins 

 floating near the top of the water: get two or 

 three grasshoppers as you go over the meadow, and 

 get secretly behind the tree, and stand as free 

 from motion as possible : then put a grasshopper 

 on your hook, and let your hook hang a quarter 

 of a yard short of the water, to which end you 

 must rest your rod on some bough of the tree ; 

 but it is likely the chubs will sink down towards 

 the bottom of the water at the first shadow of your 

 rod, for a chub is the fearfullest of fishes, and will 

 do so if but a bird flies ovr him, and makes the 

 least shadow on the water; but they will pre- 

 sently rise up to the top again, and there lie 

 soaring till some shadow affrights them again. I 

 say, when they lie upon the top of the water, look 

 out the best chub, which you, setting yourself in 

 a fit place, may very easily see, and move your 

 rod, as softly as a snail moves, to that chub, you 

 intend to catch ; let your bait fall gently upon 

 the water three or four inches before him, and he 



