PEOCEEDINGS OF POACHERS. 61 



cat-like step and vulpine eye, towards Mr. Stingyback's 

 preserve : and there, while cautiously kneeling on one 

 knee one of his visual organs directed to the river, and 

 the other behind him to watch the approach of the 

 keeper, and with his nose almost poked among the 

 gravel lest the fish should get a glimpse of his sinister 

 phiz he pitches a well-scoured worm into the stream 

 opposite, with as long a line as a powerful rod can guide, 

 just as the first grey of dawn begins to dapple the eastern 

 sky. Tug goes the line ; birl goes the reel ; and after 

 a short but fierce struggle, a magnificent two-pounder 

 lies gasping on the sand. Thus he continues to capture 

 numbers of the finest and largest fish in the river, which 

 at this season feed almost exclusively at night, and during 

 the early morning until five or six o'clock A.M., when the 

 vigorous rays of the returning sun send both the human 

 and piscine prowlers to seek for refuge and repose. 



