1*72 SHORTENING THE SHANKS OF BAIT-HOOKS. 



will seldomer miss their hold than the plain round bend, 

 but they will be found much more difficult to bait and 

 more apt to break and injure the worm when in the 

 water both considerable drawbacks. All the hooks 

 used in worm-fishing should have their shanks short- 

 ened, by which their presence will not be so easily de- 

 tected, and the worm will appear much more natural, than 

 in the constrained and unyielding shape it assumes, when 

 skewered upon a long-shanked hook ; hence, they will 

 be more freely taken in all waters where the fish have a 

 considerable personal acquaintance with the angling 

 fraternity. And in what part of the world are they 

 now strangers ? unless it be in the sands of Sahara, or 

 among the craters of Owyhee. Even the Esquimaux, 

 shivering amid the icebergs of the pole, are arrant 

 fishers. And few indeed of the fresh-water denizens of 

 the British Isles have not felt the sting of a minnow, 

 worm, or fly, at one period of their lives, if they have 

 lived long enough to attain to the years of discretion. 



