LIVE-BAITING. 163 



dition serves as a means of preserving vital energy and maintaining 

 the action of tlie heart for a certain period, but does not re-esta- 

 blish respiration directly, as its action would be of little avail, the 

 branchite being in the state already alluded to. If the fish be after- 

 wards restored to water, the value of brandy as an aqua vita is 

 at once apparent. The dormant energy becomes immediately 

 awakened, the stimulant operates on the nerve centre, the water 

 moistens the gill covers, the muscles are brought into play once 

 more, and the organism which before was almost at the point of 

 extinction manifests vital energy which we call ' life.' 



Henceforth ' to drink like a fish,' will be an expression, it 

 is presumed, in especial force amongst pike fishers. Should 

 brandy and water, however, fail in any case to produce the 

 desired revival, there will still be a chance left, viz. try the 

 well-known alcoholic concoction beloved by the frequenters of 

 American bars, called a ' corpse-reviver.' 



One other suggestion of a less bibulous character. If baits 

 run short or seem likely to do so, it will generally be found 

 better, instead of going on fishing with flabby or half-dead baits, 

 to keep the bright hvely baits on the hook as long as they last 

 and when the bait can is exhausted to use up the defunct indi- 

 viduals with spinning or gorge tackle. 



HUXING. 



Before quitting the subject of live-baiting I may, perhaps, 

 refer, though rather as a curiosity than as a practical method of 

 live-baiting, to what is known amongst old writers as ' huxing.' 

 Dame Juliana Berners, of oft-referred to memory, describes it 

 thus : — 



' Yf ye lyst to have good sporte thenne tye the corde [of 

 your gorge line] to a gose [goose] flote ; and ye shall see god 

 halynge [ ? hauling] whether the gose or the pike shall have the 

 better.' 



Barker also, in his ' Art of Angling,' refers tO- ' huxing ' in 

 rhyme if not in rhythm. 



M 2 



