362 ANGLING FOR GUDGEON. 



lows of all our mixed rivers. By a mixed river 

 I mean one that is not confined to the production 

 of the salmon tribe, but which produces the carp 

 family and other coarse fish. If you can mud the 

 bottom, that is, cause an artificial discoloration 

 in the water by means of an iron rake, or any 

 other way, you will draw to the spot most of the 

 gudgeon in the immediate vicinity, and very pro- 

 bably kill the majority of them. You must then 

 move to another spot and repeat the artificial dis- 

 colouration of the water as before. Mudding the 

 water is the grand secret of success in gudgeon 

 angling. 



One word of advice in this penultimate page to 

 the reader. Let him follow one maxim, which I 

 wish I had always followed, viz., that repetition is 

 the soul of instruction. Whenever he finds, on a 

 first perusal, any passage of the preceding pages 

 obscure, let him re-peruse it attentively, and I 

 flatter myself the obscurity will disappear. If it do 

 not, let him try a third time, and if then a difficulty 

 remain, the fault most probably will be mine. 

 Still the reader will have done well, for having 

 persevered. In like manner, should any thing I 

 teach seem at first difficult to be practised well* 

 let reiterated attempts be made towards the attain- 

 ment of perfection, and I am confident that the 

 result of repetition will be surprise that a thing, 

 found after some little patient practice of such 



