170 ANGLING LITERATURE IN 



The same kind of marvellous stories of fish, have not 

 lost all their relish, even in modern times ; as witness the 

 following : 



" A gentleman was fishing in the north of England, and 

 saw a crow flying near the surface of the river, swallowed 

 by a salmon, that leaped up at it. Amazed at this, he 

 pulled off his hat, and fixing it to a rope, which lay near, 

 threw it upon the stream ; after some time the fish swal- 

 lowed it likewise ; upon which he endeavoured to pull it 

 to the shore, but the fish had such strength as to drag him 

 backwards and forwards (though assisted by another 

 person) upwards of four miles. At last fixing the rope to 

 the tree, and procuring a couple of horses, they brought 

 it to. When they cut it open, they found in it a crow, 

 and a young lamb, which is supposed to have fallen into 

 the stream, as they were carrying it over in a boat. The 

 salmon weighed independent of its contents, between ten 

 and twelve stone. This was in the newspapers four years 

 ago." Extracted from The Wonders of Nature and Art, 

 published at Berwick-on-Tweed, by R. Taylor. 



AN ACCOUNT OF A LARGE EEL. 



Sometime ago in the last century, the farmers near 

 Yeovil, whose fields lay contiguous to the river, suffered 

 greatly by losing vast quantities of hay ; for which 

 several people were taken up on suspicion of stealing the 

 same ; what added to the surprise of every one was, that 

 the hay missing did not appear to be cut, as it usually is, 



