TROUT OF THE COLNE. 35 



seems to lose his acquired habits of caution, 

 and becomes stupid. 



POIET. This great fish, that you have 

 just caught, must be nearly of the weight I 

 assigned to him. 



HAL. O no; he is, I think, above 51bs. 

 but not 61bs. ; but we can form a more cor- 

 rect opinion by measuring him, which I can 

 easily do, the but of my rod being a mea- 

 sure. He measures, from nose to fork, a 

 very little less than twenty-four inches, and, 

 consequently, upon the scale which is appro- 

 priate to well-fed trouts, should weigh 51bs. 

 lOoz. which, within an ounce, I doubt not, 

 is his weight. 



PHYS. O, I see you take the mathemati- 

 cal law, that similar solids are to each other 

 in the triplicate ratio of one of their dimen- 

 sions. 



HAL. You are right. 



PHYS. But I think you are below the 

 mark, for this appears to me an extraordi- 

 narily thick fish. 



