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And you are to know, that in Hampshire-which I think exceeds all England, for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant brooks, and store of trouts-they use to catch trouts in the night, by the light of a torch or straw; which when they have discovered, they strike with a trout-spear, or other ways. This kind of way they catch very many; but I would not believe it till I was an eye-witness of it, nor do I like it now I have seen it. Ven. But, master! do not trouts see us, in the night?

Pisc. Yes; and hear, and smell, too, both then and in the day-time.' For Gesner observes, the otter smells a fish forty furlongs off him in the water; and that it may be true, seems to be affirmed by Sir FRANCIS BACON, in the eighth century of his Natural His

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of sounds, by de- o
monstrating it thus:
"That if you knock
two stones together
very deep under the
water, those that
stand on a bank
near to that place,
may hear the noise
without any dimi-
nution of it by the'
water.' He also
offers the like expe-
riment concerning

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Lord Bacon.

the letting an anchor fall, by a very long cable or rope, on

1 Swammerdam asserts that fish hear, and adds, that "they have a wonderful labyrinth of the ear for that purpose." A clergyman, a friend of mine, assures me, that at the abbey of St. Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw carp come at the whistling of the feeder.-H. I have tried too many experiments as to the hearing of fish not to be convinced that they do hear, and there is little doubt of their sense of smelling. When I have been feeding the gold and silver fish in Hampton Court Gardens, and cut the inside of a piece of orange-peel to resemble a bit of bread, they would never touch it, which is some evidence that they do smell. Besides which it was a confirmed practice with anglers to use aromatic essences in their ground-baits, and, as I have already said, (see p. 134,) it was found to answer.-ED.

a rock, or the sand, within the sea. And this being so well observed and demonstrated, as it is by that learned man, has made me to believe that eels unbed themselves, and stir, at the noise of thunder; and not only, as some think, by the motion or stirring of the earth, which is occasioned by that thunder.

And this reason of Sir Francis Bacon, "Exper." 792, has made me crave pardon of one that I laughed at for affirming, that he knew carps come to a certain place in a pond, to be fed at the ringing of a bell or the beating of a drum. And however, it shall be a rule for me, to make as little noise as I can, when I am fishing, until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted, which I shall give any man leave to do. And lest you may think him singular in this opinion,-I will tell you, this seems to be believed by our learned Doctor Hakewill, who, in his "Apology of God's Power and Providence,"1 p. 360, quotes Pliny, to report that one of the emperors had particular fish-ponds; and, in them, several fish that appeared and came, when they were called by their particular names. And St. James tells us, chap. iii. 7, that all things in the sea have been tamed by mankind. And Pliny tells us, Lib. ix. 35, that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, had a lamprey, at whose gills she hung jewels or ear-rings; and that others have been so tender-hearted, as to shed tears at the death of fishes, which they have kept and loved. And these observations, which will to most hearers seem wonderful, seem to have a further confirmation from Martial, Lib. iv. Epigr. 30, who writes thus:

1 This book, which was first published in folio, 1633, and is full or excellent learning and good sense, contains an examination and censure of that common error which philosophers have fallen into: "that there is in Nature a perpetual and universal decay." The contrary whereof is with great force demonstrated.-H.

2 I have read somewhere of a trout which was kept for a long time in a little spring pond, that answered to the name of "Tom." And in the Ayr Observer, there was mention made of an Eel in a garden well, which came to be fed out of a spoon by the children on being called by his name, Rob Roy. Lucian (Syrian Goddess) says: "There is also an adjacent lake, very deep, in which many sacred fishes are kept; some of the largest have names given to them, and come when they are called."-ED.

3 Mons. Bernier, in his "Mogul Empire," reports the like of the Great Mogul.-H.

Piscator fuge, ne nocens, &c.

Angler! would'st thou be guiltless? then forbear;
For these are sacred fishes that swim here,

Who know their sovereign, and will lick his hand,
Than which none's greater in the world's command;
Nay more, they've names, and when they called are,
Do to their several owners' call repair.

All the further use that I shall make of this shall be, to advise anglers to be patient and forbear swearing, lest they be heard and catch no fish.

And so I shall proceed, next, to tell you, it is certain, that certain fields near Leominster, a town in Herefordshire, are observed to make the sheep that graze upon them more fat, than the next, and also to bear finer wool, -that is to say, that that year in which they feed in such a particular pasture, they shall yield finer wool than they did that year before they came to feed in it; and coarser again, if they shall return to their former pasture; and, again, return to a finer wool, being fed in the fine wool ground-Which, I tell you, that you may the better believe that, I am certain, if I catch a trout in one meadow he shall be white and faint, and very like to be lousy; and, as certainly, if I catch a trout in the next meadow, he shall be strong, and red, and lusty, and much better meat. Trust me, scholar! I have caught many a trout in a particular meadow, that the very shape and enamelled colour of him hath been such, as hath joyed me to look on him: and I have then, with much pleasure, concluded with Solomon, "Everything is beautiful in its season.

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I should, by promise, speak next of the salmon; but I

1 The trout delights in small purling rivers, and brooks, with gravelly bottoms and a swift stream. His haunts are an eddy, behind a stone, a log, or a bank that projects forward into the river, and against which the stream drives; a shallow between two streams; or, towards the latter end of the summer, a mill-tail. His hold is usually in the deep, under the hollow of a bank, or the root of a tree. He spawns about the beginning of November; and does not recover till the beginning of March. When you fish for large trout or salmon, a winch fastened to the rod, at the butt-end, will be very useful upon the rod whip a number of small rings of about an eighth of an inch diameter, and, at first, about two feet distant from each other, but, afterwards, diminishing gradually in their distances till you come to the end. The winch should carry ten yards or more of wove hair or silk line. When you have struck a fish that may endanger your tackle, let the line run, and wind him up as he tires. [You will find great conveni

will, by your favour, say a little of the umber or grayling; which is so like a trout for his shape and feeding, that I desire I may exercise your patience with a short discourse of him; and, then, the next shall be of the salmon.

ence in a spike, screwed into the end of the butt of your rod when you have struck a fish, retire backwards from the river, and, by means of the spike, stick the rod perpendicular in the ground; you may then lay hold of the line, and draw the fish to you, as you see proper. But this should not be done against the stream, or till the fish is exhausted, as the line would be likely to snap.-ED.] When you angle for a trout, whether with a fly or at the ground, you need but make three or four trials in a place; which, if unsuccessful, you may conclude that there are none there. Walton, in speaking of the several rivers where trout are found, has made no mention of the Kennet; which, undoubtedly, produces as good and as many trouts as any river in England. In the reign of King Charles the Second, a trout was taken-in that river, near Newbury, with a casting net-which measured forty-five inches in length.-H. Hofland is very elaborate on the subject of trout-fishing, to whom the practical angler is referred. For the economy of the fish consult Yarrell, and an ingenious paper by Mr. Boccius, in Loudon's "Entertaining Naturalist."-ED.

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OBSERVATIONS OF THE UMBER OR GRAYLING, AND DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM.

PISCATOR.-The umber and grayling are thought, by some, to differ as the herring and pilchard do. But though they may do so in other nations, I think those in England differ nothing but in their names. Aldrovandus says, they be of a trout kind: and Gesner says, that in his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. And in Italy, he is, in the month of May, so highly valued, that he is sold at a much higher rate than any other fish. The French, which call the chub "un villain," call the umber of the lake Leman, "un umble chevalier;" and they

1 The larger grayling is called an umber; as the full-grown jack is called a pike.-BROWNE.

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