

RING AND STAPLE. 415 



aquaria, the fish, are perpetually on the move, whereas in such a 

 river as the Dove of Derbyshire, and even the Darenth of Kent, 

 large trout may be seen almost motionless, but invariably with 

 their heads directed up the stream. 



The reason is evident enough. As long as the fish lies with 

 its head up the stream the water flows through its gills, and 

 enables it to breathe. Were the passage of the water stopped, 

 the fish would be drowned. Consequently, all good anglers, 

 when they hook a fish which is worth taking, keep its head 

 down the stream, prevent the water from washing over its gills, 

 and consequently render it so weak by deprivation of oxygen, 

 that it becomes an easy prey, and is rendered subservient to a 

 line of a single hair. Let the fish breathe, and a single struggle 

 would smash a line of treble the strength. But keep it from 

 breathing by directing its head down the stream, and it rapidly 

 loses all strength, and can be directed into the landing-net, or 

 brought within the scope of the gaff, without a chance of escape. 



I need hardly remark that on the right-hand side of the 

 illustration is shown a Laminated Stove, and that on the left 

 are drawings of the gills of the Shark tribe and the common 

 Trout. If the reader would really like to look into the subject 

 for himself, I should suggest the purchase of a cod's head and 

 shoulders and a lobster. The breathing apparatus can be removed 

 from each for examination, and the remainder will serve as a 

 first course for dinner. 



Ring and Staple. 



Humble, and apparently insignificant, as the principle of the 

 Ring and Staple may be, we owe no small amount of our 

 domestic comfort to it. It meets us in all kinds of ways, in the 

 hinges of our boxes, in the padlocks of our doors, in the inn- 

 side fastenings for our horses, in the seaside fastenings for ships' 

 cables, and in a thousand other ways too many to enumerate. 



On the right-hand side of the next illustration is shown the 

 Ring and Staple as used for the purpose of mooring ships and 

 boats, it being absolutely necessary that the machinery, simple 



