84 AN ANGLER'S HOURS v 



strong, stately fish. His shape is not so 

 graceful as that of a trout, but it is sug- 

 gestive of enormous strength. The difference 

 between them is as the difference between a 

 cart - horse and a hunter. The hunter is 

 much more active and much quicker, but 

 the cart - horse has more pulling - power. 

 The chub may not be quite as strong as a 

 cart-horse, but he can pull hard enough 

 when hooked to make his capture a matter 

 of grievous uncertainty. He grows to a 

 considerable size. One may justly expect to 

 catch chub of three pounds in most rivers 

 which contain them, and one can see much 

 bigger ones. 



I know of several rivers where on any 

 sunny day in August chub of four and five 

 pounds may be seen basking on the top of 

 the water. The Great Ouse is full of big 

 chub, and in the neighbourhood of St. Ives, 

 where much of the river is free, many really 

 large ones are caught every summer. The 

 Thames, too, is a splendid river for them ; 

 it seems to be much better than it was, for 

 Robert Blakey ("Palmer Hackle, Esq."), 

 who wrote in the middle of the last century, 

 chronicled the capture of a four-pound chub 



