82 Short-sightedness offah. Chapt. vi. 



they live, which makes it difficult for even a fish to see 

 any great distance through it laterally, and without a hack 

 ground of light. Again it is the hypothesis of short-sight- 

 edness only that makes it intelligible to me why a fish 

 which suspects your bait, follows so very close behind it, 

 within a few inches instead of feet or yards, examining 

 it before he makes up his mind, and requires to follow it 

 for sometime too, scrutinizing at those close quarters be- 

 fore he can satisfy himself about it. It is a reason in my 

 mind for spinning in right places, for showing your bait 

 exactly where a fish is likely to be lying, and one of the 

 several explanations why a good fisherman, who knows 

 such places intuitively, kills more fish than a tyro. It is 

 one of the grounds for my opinion that a spun dead bait 

 is preferable to a live bait, which, from being stationary, is 

 not shewn to nearly so many fish. It is to their short- 

 sightedness under water that I trust, and find I trust 

 rightly, in wading in to fish in preference to standing on 

 the bank. If they could see far laterally in water, they 

 could not fail to see the fisherman's two legs and trowsers 

 all in the water up to the fork, and seeing, they would re- 

 fuse his lure. And yet all fishermen find that it pays very 

 well to wade. 



This argument of short-sightedness is in favour there- 

 fore of spinning slowly, so as to let a fish see, and to 

 give him a chance and a confidence of catching your bait. 

 The chances I say, as well as nature, are against spinning 

 quickly. For my part I like to dawdle a bait about, up 

 and down, under this bank, close by that big stone, and 



