198 FISHING AS PRACTISED IN 



rod is fastened, while at the other end is an open 

 trap-door, the whole being supported in a proper 

 position by a forked stick. No sooner has a large 

 fish entered the basket, and taken the bait, than 

 the elastic rod, as in the former instance, erects 

 itself with a spring, the trap-door closes, and the 

 game is thus secured. In this mode of angling 

 there is, of course, no occasion to watch the line 

 as in the common method, when it frequently hap- 

 pens that the philosophic fisher displays no ordi- 

 nary degree of patience in calmly waiting for 

 hours, or perhaps for days, in expectation of a very 

 fine nibble at least, if not of a fierce bite. The 

 spring-hook, or spring-basket, if set at night, may 

 be conveniently examined the next morning, and 

 will seldom be found empty, unless fish be very 

 scarce. Annals of Sporting. 



Fishing in Tonquin. One of the modes of 

 nocturnal fishing at Tonquin is to frighten the 

 fish by fires carried along the surface of the water, 

 and to attract them into boats by a painted board, 

 sloping downwards, on which they fall in terror, 

 into the vessel. Sprats are caught in quantities, 

 by sinking' a bed of large and tough leaves, and 

 pulling it up after a multitude of these small 

 fish have settled upon it. 



Fishing on the Towyn Lake. In the album 

 at the Pennibont Inn, there appeared an account 



