CHAP. VI.] THE SECOND DAY. 249 



your own fault, and through your own eagerness and haste ; for 

 you are never to offer to strike a good fish, if he do not strilte 

 himself, till first you see him turn his head after he has taken your 

 fly, and then you can never strain your tackle in the striking, if 

 you strike with any manner of moderation. Come, throw in one 

 again, and fish me this stream by inches; for I assure you, here 

 are very good fish : both Trout and Grayling lie here ; and at 

 that great stone on the other side, 'tis ten to one a good Trout 

 gives you the meeting. 



Viator. I have him now : but he is gone down towards 

 the bottom. I cannot see what he is, yet he should be a good fish 

 by his weight ; but he makes no great stir. 



PiSCATOR. Why then, by what you say, I dare venture to 

 assure you 'tis a Grayling, who is one of the deadest-hearted fishes 

 in the world ; and the bigger he is, the more easily taken. Look 

 you, now you see him plain ; I told you what he was. Bring 

 hither that landing-net, boy. And now. Sir, he is your own ; and, 

 believe me, a good one ; sixteen inches long I warrant him : I 

 have taken none such this year. 



Viator. I never saw a Grayling before look so black. 



PiSCATOR. Did you not ? why then, let me tell you that you 

 never saw one before in right season ; for then a Grayling 15 very 

 black about his head, gills, and down his back ; and has his belly 

 of a dark grey, dappled with black spots, as you see this is ; and 

 I am apt to conclude, that from thence he derives his name of 

 Umber. Though I must tell you, this fish is past his prime, and 

 begins to decline, and was in better season at Christmas than he 

 is now. But move on ; for it grows towards dinner-time.; and 

 there is a very great and fine stream below, under that rock, that 

 fills the deepest pool in all the river, where you are almost sure of 

 a good fish. 



Viator. Let him come, I'll try a fall with him. But I had 

 thought that the Grayling had been always in season with the 

 Trout, and had come in and gone out with him. 



PiSCATOR. Oh no ! assure yourself a Grayling is a winter 

 fish ; but such a one as would deceive any but such as know 

 him very well indeed ; for his flesh, even in his worst season, 

 is so firm, and will so easily calver, that in plain truth he is very 

 good meat at all times : but in his perfect season, which, by the 

 way, none but an overgrown Grayling will ever be, I think him so 

 good a fish as to be little inferior to the best Trout that ever I 

 tasted in my hfe. 



