132 
THE PIKE, & C . 
account of the breadtli of their figures ; but to either of these, 
and to the roach particularly, it can be readily and conve- 
niently attached. Choose a fresh dead roach, of from three 
to five ounces ; insert the small hook of the spring as above 
directed for the common snap, but a little deeper, so as to take 
a firmer and deeper hold, than when applied to the living 
one. If the apparatus, from its size, must project beyond the 
line of the fish form, let it be above ; but by no means allow 
the bend of the hooks to appear under the ventral surface. 
The figures Nos. 4 and 5 on Plate No. 2, exhibiting the snap 
sprung and unsprung, furnish a sufficient exemplification of 
its mode of action ; in seizing of the bait, the pike or jack 
draw the hooks out of the detaining frame, and in conse- 
quence they immediately expand and fix themselves into the 
jaws of the fish which has seized it. 
“ Of the Hooks in Snap-Fishing. We must again say, it 
is of great consequence that those to strike the pike be so 
placed as to easily clear themselves ; if, therefore, it is ex- 
pected of these hooks that they shall support and play the 
fish, and yet be ready at a moment to disengage themselves 
from this attachment, then too much is expected of them; 
and when they ought to be free, to strike at once into the 
mouth of the pike, they are apt to be buried deep in the body 
of the bait. It was purposely to relieve this strain on the 
bait that we added to the traces a small hook, which then 
left the large hooks at liberty to disengage themselves : for 
on the small hooks the stress of the action of playing the fish, 
was then altogether placed. It is on this principle that the 
snap-baits in general should be formed, and where they havo 
not some sustaining hooks, independent of the snap-hooks, 
then they ought never to pass through the centre of the body 
of the bait-fish, but superficially under the skin only, so that 
when the pike strikes, the skin of the bait may readily tear 
away by the united forces of the stroke of the Angler and his 
