CHAP. XVII.] THE FIFTH DAY. 287 



hole where a Trout is, and he will presently venture his life 

 for it, 'tis not to be doubted, if you be not espied ; and that 

 the bait first touch the water, before the line : and this will 

 do best in the deepest stillest water. 



Next let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk 

 quietly by a brook with a little stick in my hand, with which 

 1 might easily take these and consider the curiosity of their 

 composure ; and if you shall ever like to do so, then note, 

 that your stick must be a little hazel or willow ; cleft, or 

 have a nick at one end of it, by which means you may with 

 ease take any of them in that nick out of the water, before 

 you have any occasion to use them. These, my honest 

 Scholar, are some observations told to you as they now come 

 into my memory, of which you may make some use : but for 

 the practical part, it is that that makes an Angler : it is 

 diligence, and observation, and practice, and an ambition to- 

 be the best in the art that must do it. 1 I will tell you, 



1 The author has now done describing the several kinds of fish, excepting 

 the few little ones that follow, with the methods of taking them ; but has 

 said little or nothing of float-fishing ; it may, therefore, not be amiss here 

 to lay down some rules about it. 



Let the rod be light and stiff, and withal so smart in the spring as to 

 strike at the tip of the whale-bone ; from fourteen to fifteen feet is a good 

 length. 



In places where you sometimes meet with barbel, as at Shepperton and 

 Hampton, in Middlesex, the fittest line is one of six or seven hairs at top, 

 and so diminishing for two yards ; let the rest be strong Indian grass, to 

 within about half a yard of the hook, which may be whipped to a fine 

 grass or silk-worm gut. And this line will kill a fish of six pounds 

 weight. 



But, for mere roach and dace-fishing, accustom yourself to a single-hair 

 line, with which an artist may kill a fish of a pound and a half weight. 



For your float : In slow streams, a neat round goose-quill is proper : but 

 for deep or rapid rivers, or in an eddy, the cork, shaped like a pear, is 

 indisputably the best ; which should not, in general, exceed the size of a 

 nutmeg ; let not the quill, which you put through it, be more than half an 

 inch above and below the cork ; and this float, though some prefer a swan's 

 quill, has great advantage over a bare quill ; for the quill being defended 

 from the water by the cork, does not soften, and the cork enables you to 

 lead your line so heavily, as that the hook sinks almost as soon as you put 

 [it] into the water ; whereas, when you lead but lightly, it does not go to 

 the bottom till it is near the end of your swim. And in leading your line?, 

 be careful to balance them so nicely, that a very small touch will sink 

 them ; some use for this purpose lead shaped like a barley-corn ; but there 

 is nothing better to lead with than shot, which you must have, ready cleft, 



