230 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



testing, in the language of the natives, against beginning 

 work on a " leer," i. e. empty stomach. We are soon in 

 the punt, and, as soon as the strong stream permits us, at 

 Boulter's Lock, and about a quarter of a mile above it we 

 make our first pitch. The sun is shining brightly, the air 

 " keen and eager," the water fairly clear, but with a slight 

 milky hue about it which fishermen do not quite like. 

 Taking all things together, however, it was a likely day 

 for jack and perch to feed ; and so it turned out as regards 

 the latter, though they had not been feeding much for 

 some days before. I soon had a snap bait out for jack 

 and a paternoster with minnows for perch, and these I 

 tended, seated on a Windsor chair, after the Thames 

 fashion, in the stern of the punt. Ned set to work with a 

 Nottingham rod and tackle, the bait being the tail of a 

 lob worm on a smallish hook, and kept close to the bottom. 

 A few chopped lobs were thrown in, to suggest a morning 

 meal to our spinous friends, and it was soon evident that 

 a diet of worms, and not minnows, was to be the order of 

 the day. Three or four were soon on board, but not 

 one touched the minnows. After losing a jack which 

 paid a visit to my lively roach, and the perch seeming 

 to go off, we determined to change the venue, and so 

 my fisherman punted up to .Formosa, while I stamped 

 my feet along the tow-path to restore the somewhat 

 sluggish circulation of my extremities, and admired the 

 Clieveden Woods, which, with their multitude of yew- 

 trees and other evergreens, I thought looked as charming 

 as they do in their summer and autumn foliage. We 

 pitched again a little way up one of the backwaters near 

 Formosa, in about six feet of water, and I was soon at work, 

 using ordinary bottom fishing-tackle, a gentle back eddy 



