FISHING ANECDOTES. 203 



Below the arches of the flour mills that I have 

 before named, there was a large piece of still, or what is 

 called slack, water, which was supposed to be rented by 

 a certain Mr. Betzerman, or some such curious name. 

 His mode of fishing was curious, as he used to fish 

 with a live bleak with a hand line ; he never used a 

 rod of any kind, but merely sat in a boat with this 

 original apparatus dangling out at the stern, and if a 

 fish, which sometimes happened, took his bait, it took 

 him hours to kill it, and I believe on more than one 

 occasion he has been known to have been occupied 

 all night in this interesting occupation. He was most 

 averse to any one knowing what he caught, and being 

 as cunning as the cunningest of old weasels, hardly 

 any one ever knew the facts of the case more than 

 that old Betzerman had caught a big trout in what was 

 called the Kuchen Wasser, which was sacred to him. 



After I left Constance I went to Italy, and fished 

 both in the Lake of Como and in the Lago Maggiore, 

 both of which had good trout in them. In the Lake 

 of Como I never killed a trout over sixteen pounds ; 

 they were beautifully shaped fish and were as bright 

 as silver, their flesh was quite white, but firm and 

 flakey, and delicious to eat. 



In Maggiore I have caught them up to sixteen 



