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A provision of twelve thousand pages of stereotype plates, and of four hundred engravings on steel, affords ample security that the publication will proceed with the most rigid punctuality to its completion. A very large proportion of the matter is entirely new. Wherever any of the text of the former Edition or Supplement has been retained, it has been amended in style, improved in arrangement, and in every respect accommo- dated to the actual state of knowledge and the general design of the Work. In paper, typography, and beauty of embellishment, as well as in the literary value of its contents, the present Edition will be found very far superior to any which have preceded it. In every department, indeed, no expense has been spared to render the work worthy of the improved taste of the age and of the national name. The Proprietors, therefore, have the most confident expectation that the SEVENTH EDITION of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA will form a most important addition to the well-selected Library, and will prove an invaluable substitute to such as are denied access to a general collection of books. Part CVIII. which is just published, contains RAILWAYS, by LIEUTENANT LECOUNT of the London and Birmingham Railway — RELIGIOUS MISSIONS, by JAMES DOUGLAS, Esq. of Cavers-^ Biographies of RABELAIS, RACINE, Mrs. ANN RADCLIFFE, ERASMUS RASK, RENNIE the Engineer, and many others ; with the Articles REFORMATION, REGISTRATION and the commencement of REPTILIA. CONTENTS. ANGLING. CHAPTER I. PAGK INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ANGLER AND HIS ART, ......... CHAPTER II. ON THE GENERAL STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF FISHES, . 37 SECTION I. Introductory Observations, 37 SECTION II. External Form and Attributes of Fishes, .... 40 SECTION III. Nutrition and Growth of Fishes, ...... 44 SECTION IV. The Osteology of Fishes, 48 SECTION V. The Muscular Movements of Fishes, ..... 60 SECTION VI. The nervous System, and Senses of Fishes, . . . . 61 SECTION VII. Organs of Sight in Fishes, ....... 64 SECTION VIII. Organs of Hearing in Fishes, 67 SECTION IX. Organs of Smell in Fishes, (>'8 CONTENTS. SECTION X. PAOR Organs of Taste in Fishes, ..... 70 SECTION XI. Organs of Touch in Fishes, . . . . .71 SECTION XII. Things to be inferred from the preceding Premises, . . 73 SECTION XIII. The circulating System of Fishes, . . .78 SECTION XIV. The Resp/ration of Fishes, ...... 79 SECTION XV. The Swimming Bladder of Fishes, . . . .82 SECTION XVI. The general Position and Relationships of Fishes, considered as a great Class in the Animal Kingdom, . . .85 SECTION XVII. The Geographical Distribution of Fishes, ... 88 CHAPTER III. OF THE ANGLER'S FISHES IN PARTICULAR — THEIR ASPECT, HABITS, AND MODES OF CAPTURE, . . . 93 The Perch, ....... 93 The Ruffe, or Pope, ...... 95 The River Bull-Head, or Miller's Thumb, ... 96 The Mackerel, . . . . . . .102 The Common Carp, . . . . . .105 The Barbel, 112 The Gudgeon, ....... 114 The Tench, ....... 115 The Bream, or Carp Bream, . . . . .116 The Roach, 119 The Dace, ....... 122 The Graining, . . . . . . .123 The Chub, or Skelly, 124 The Red-Eye, or Rudd, . . . . .126 The Azurine, or Blue Roach, ..... 127 The Bleak, 128 The Minnow, . . . . . .129 The Loach, or Beardie, ..... 131 CONTENTS. XI The Pike, The Salmon, The Bull-Trout, The Salmon-Trout, The Common Trout, The Professor, Green Mantle, Long Tom, .... Sam Slick, The Grizzly King, . . 234 The Great Lake Trout, . . . .246 The Char, The Grayling, ....... 266 Eels, .... .269 LIST OF WORKS ON ANGLING. SHOOTING. ADVERTISEMENT, ...... 277 INTRODUCTION, ....... 279 A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE WEAPONS OF THE CHASE ; AND OF SOME OF THE SPORTS AND PASTIMES THAT PRE- CEDED THE USE OF THE GUN, .... 285 The Rifle, 300 Fallow-Deer Shooting, ..... 307 DeerStalking, . . . . . . .311 Roe-Deer Shooting, . . ... . .325 The Fowling-Piece, ...... 326 The Lock— The Percussion System— Triggers— Wadding— Ammunition, &c. ...... 335 Charging the Fowling-Piece, ..... 342 The Wire-Cartridge, ...... 343 Taking Aim, ....... 348 Rook and Pigeon Shooting, &c. .... 353 Wild Duck Shooting, 357 Wild-Fowl Shooting from a Punt, with a large Shoulder-Gun, 360 Wild- Fowl Shooting from a Punt, with a Stanchion-Gun, . 362 Pointers and Setters, .... .363 XI 1 CONTENTS. Dog-Breaking, ...... 370 The Spaniel, Cock Dog, or Springer, . . . 376 The Retriever, ....... 377 Kennel Treatment, ...... 378 Partridge Shooting, . . . . . 379 The Pheasant, ... . 38.9 Hare Shooting, . ... 396 Rabbit Shooting, . .... 399 Snipe Shooting, . . ... 401 Woodcock Shooting, . . . . . 404 Red Grouse Shooting, .... .409 Black-Game Shooting, . . .430 The Ptarmigan, ... . 436 FLY LEAF. SAM SLICK. LONG TOM. THE PROFESSOR. GREEN MANTLE. The wand with which we now desire to charm an en- lightened and discerning public was first waved, some seasons back, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (article " Angling," Vol. Ill, page 132). We think the butt-end is not much the worse for wear, — we have strengthened the mid-pieces, repaired the top, and given the whole a coat of varnish, hoping that in the hands of others, now more fit for the practice of the gentle art than we our- selves, it may prove a steady friend and true, whether in still or troubled waters. J. TV. WOODVILLE, EDINBURGH, July 1st, 1840. Pure element of waters ! wheresoe'er Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing plants, Rise into life, and in thy train appear ; And through the sunny portion of the year, Swift insects shine — thy hovering pursuivants : But if thy bounty fail, the forest pants, And hart, and hind, and hunter with his spear, Languish and droop together. WORDSWORTH. ANGLING. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ANGLER AND HIS ART. ANGLING, or the art of fishing with rod and line, includes those branches of the piscatorial trade which are usually followed, not so much for profit, as for pleasant recreation. That the practice of " casting angles into the brook" had its origin in necessity, the mother of so many inventions, can hardly be doubted; but it is equally clear that the refined skill exhibited in this pursuit at the present day has been derived from leisure and the love of sport, aided by the more delicate gear which modern ingenuity has invented for the deception of the finny race. The comparative merits of angling, and of the kindred occupations of the fowler and the huntsman, are not likely to be determined by any portraiture ANGLING. which a lover of these exciting amusements might draw of their various excellencies, but must depend on the tone and temper of mind possessed by dif- ferent persons, and their greater or less accordance with individual tastes. This much, however, may be safely stated as a general and admitted truth, that the value of a pursuit increases in proportion as it becomes attainable by the mass of our fellow- creatures; and as angling is a much cheaper and more convenient pleasure than either hunting or shooting, it may, in so far as regards those ad- vantages, claim a decided preference. Be it re- membered that Dr. Johnson's description of a rod with a fly at one end and a fool at the other is not admitted among the memorabilia of the lovers of old Izaak Walton. The recreation of angling has been followed by many of the best and wisest of men in modern ages. Sir Henry Wotton found from experience, that after prolonged study or worldly occupation, it was " a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contented- ness;" and besides the immediate excitement of the sport itself, few occupations yield so much pleasure to the lovers of rural scenery and the admirers of the picturesque. The most beautiful scenes in nature usually adorn or consist of the banks of lakes and rivers; and the composition of a perfect landscape, whether in nature or art, is incomplete without the accessory of either tranquil or flowing waters. The pursuits of the artist and the angler PLEASURE SWEET BUT SUBORDINATE. 3 are therefore peculiarly compatible, and each lends an interest to the other. The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, Adorn'd with leaves and branches fresh and green, In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song Do welcome with their quire the summer's queen ; The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts among Are intermixed with verdant grass between ; The silver scaled fish that softly swim Within the sweet brook's crystal watery stream : All these, and many more of His creation, That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see ; Taking therein no little delectation, To think how strange, how wonderful they be ; Framing thereof an inward contemplation, To set his heart from other fancies free ; And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye, His mind is rapt above the starry sky. This; in solemn truth, is the spirit in which angling, and each pleasant recreation should ever be regarded. Let all innocent amusements be sought after with assiduity and gladness, if in due subor- dination to more pressing or important duties, — and especially, with never ceasing reference to the great Giver of all earthly blessings, of which a tranquil and contented disposition is the chief. Let the angler in the midst of all his light amuse- ment remember to what high and holy calling his ancient predecessors were promoted, and so walk " As ever in his great task master's eye," though casting not his nets by Galilean shore. When the cheerful spring and all its glad remem- brances rejoice his heart, let him forget not in re- 4 ANGLING. dimdant health, how many worthier far than he lie on a bed of sickness racked with pain, or with sinking spirits toil for daily bread, — no murmuring stream within their downcast view, no freshening air around their throbbing temples. If summer heat overcomes him, and he rests, not undelighted, by grey romantic keep, or rustic bridge, or old umbrageous tree, let him remember while gazing on these frail memorials — in reference to his puny frame, how long enduring ! — his immortal state, and think with solemn heart-felt awe upon that " shadow of a great rock," within which the weary and heavy laden rest for ever. If autumn's ruddy streams are roaring loud, let him not as one rejoicing in his strength, trust to that strength alone, and so " surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh thee." When stormy winter has em- broiled the sweet serenity of this green earth, and with " elemental strife" rages among icy crags and leafless trees, and the shepherd's hut and the lone mountain shieling lie buried beneath the drifting snows, — then let the angler, with grateful if not with gladsome heart, acknowledge the blessings of his fireside comforts, the numerous home delights with which he is surrounded, the goodness and mercy which have followed him " all the days of his life." If he is the son of living parents, let him reverence their grey hairs, — the first commandment with promise. If, his quiver full of arrows, he be the fond father of many hopes, " provoke not your children to wrath," but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If childless, COUNTRY CONTENTMENTS. O keep GrocTs covenant, and he will give you a place and a name " better than of sons and of daughters/'' If master, " forbear threatening," knowing that there is no respect of persons in heaven. If servant, be obedient to your master, not with eye service, but in singleness of heart, — inasmuch as ye all know that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, " the same he shall receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Old Markham, — he lived in days gone by, though we know not in truth whether he was old or young — in his Country Contentments, taking a wise survey of the subject, describes not only the outward ap- parel, but the inward qualities of an angler. He must be generally accomplished in all the liberal sciences, and, as a grammarian, ought to be qualified to write and discourse of his art in true and fitting terms. He must be possessed of sweetness of speech to entice others to so laudable an exercise, and of strength of argument to defend it against envy and slander. " Then must he be strong and valiant, neither to be amazed with storms, nor affrighted with thunder ; and if he is not temperate, but has a gnawing stomach that will not endure much fast- ing, and must observe hours, it troubleth the mind and body, and loseth that delight which only maketh pastime pleasing." " He must be of a well-settled and constant belief, to enjoy the benefit of his ex- pectation ; for then to despair, it were better never to be put in practice : and he must ever think when the waters are pleasant, and any thing likely, that there the Creator of all good things hath stored up 6 ANGLING. much of plenty ; and though your satisfaction be not as ready as your wishes, yet you must hope still, that with perseverance you shall reap the ful- ness of your harvest with contentment. Then he must be full of love both to his pleasure and his neighbour — to his pleasure, which otherwise will be irksome and tedious — and to his neighbour, that he never give offence in any particular, nor be guilty of any general destruction : then he must be exceeding patient, and neither vex nor excruciate himself with losses or mischances, as in losing the prey when it is almost in the hand, or by breaking his tools by ignorance or negligence ; but with pleased sufferance amend errors, and think mis- chances instructions to better carefulness."' In regard to the antiquity of angling, it has been traced by some to the time of Seth, who is asserted to have taught it to his sons ; and so highly have others esteemed the knowledge of the art, as to maintain that its rules and maxims were engraven on those pillars by which an acquaintance with music, the mathematics, and other branches of use- ful knowledge, was preserved by God's appointment from extinction in the days of Noah. It is fre- quently alluded to in the holy Scriptures ; as in Isaiah, xix. 8, " The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish;" so in the prophet Habakkuk, i. 15, u They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag ; therefore they rejoice and are glad." We PRACTICE BETTER THAN PRECEPT. 7 deem it unnecessary to multiply quotations from ancient authors, whether sacred or profane ; but shall rest satisfied with pointing out, at the close of this portion of our volume, the principal works on angling which have appeared in our own lan- guage, and in relation to the practice of the art in British streams. As expert angling never was and never will be successfully taught by rule, but is almost entirely the result of assiduous and long-continued practice, we purpose being very brief in our general disquisi- tion on the subject. We shall commence by stat- ing our belief that fly-fishing, by far the most elegant and interesting branch of the art, ought not to be regarded exclusively as an art of imita- tion. It no doubt depends on deception, which usually proceeds on the principle of one thing being successfully substituted in the likeness of another ; but Bacon's distinctive definitions of simulation arid dissimulation place the subject in a truer light. As simulation consists in the adoption or affecta- tion of what is not, while dissimulation consists in the careful concealment of what really is — the one being a positive, the other rather a negative act — so the great object of the fly-fisher is to dissimulate in such a manner as to prevent his expected prey from detecting the artificial nature of his lure, without troubling himself by a vain effort to simulate or assume, with his fly, the appearance of any indivi- dual or specific form of insect life. There is, in truth, little or no connection between the art of angling and the science of entomology ; and there- 8 ANGLING. fore the success of the angler, in by far the greater proportion of cases, does not depend on the resem- blance which subsists between his artificial fly and the natural insect. This statement is no doubt greatly at variance with the expressed principles of all who have deemed fishing worthy of considera- tion, from the days of Isaiah and Theocritus, to those of Carrol and Bainbridge. But we are not the less decidedly of opinion, that in nine instances out of ten a fish seizes upon an artificial fly as upon an insect or moving creature sui generis, and not on account of its exact and successful resem- blance to any accustomed and familiar object. If it is not so, let us request to be informed upon what principle of imitative art the different varieties of salmon-fly can be supposed to bear the most dis- tant resemblance to any species of dragonfly, to imitate which we are frequently told they are in- tended 2 Certainly no perceptible similarity in form or aspect exists between them, all the species of dragonfly, with the exception of one or two of the sub-genus Calepterix, being characterized by clear, lace-like, pellucid wings, entirely unadorned by those fantastic gaudy colours, borrowed from the peacock and other " birds of gayest plume," which are made to distinguish the supposed resemblance. Besides, the finest salmon-fishing is frequently in mild weather during the cooler seasons of the year, in autumn and early spring, several months either before or after any dragonfly has become visible on the face of the waters, as it is a summer insect, and rarely makes its appearance in the perfect state SALMON-FLIES NOT DRAGON-FLIES. until the month of June. If they bear no resem- blance to each other in form or colour, how much more unlike must they seem, when, instead of being swept like lightning down the current, as a real one would be, the artificial fly is seen crossing and re- crossing every stream and torrent, with the agility of an otter, and the strength of an alligator ? Or dart- ing with regular jerks, and often many inches under water, up smooth continuous flows, where all the dragonflies on earth — with St. George to boot — could not maintain their place a single second! Now, as it is demonstrable that the artificial fly gene- rally used for salmon, bears no resemblance, except in size, to any living one ; that the only tribe which, from their respective dimensions, it may be sup- posed to represent, does not exist in the winged state during the period when the imitation is most generally and most successfully practised ; and if they did, that their habits and natural powers totally disenable them from being at any time seen under such circumstances as would give a colour to the supposition of the one being ever mistaken for the other ; may we not fairly conclude that, in this instance at least, the fish proceed upon other grounds, and are deceived by an appearance of life and motion, rather than by a specific resemblance to any thing which they had previously been in the habit of capturing ? What natural insect do the large flies, at which sea-trout rise so readily, re- semble? These, as well as gilse and salmon, fre- quently take the lure far within the bounds of the salt-water mark ; and yet naturalists know that 10 ANGLING. no such tiling as a salt-water fly exists, or at least has ever been discovered by their researches. In- deed no true insect inhabits the sea. What species are imitated by the palmer, or by three fourths of the dressed flies in common use ? An artificial fly can, at the best, be considered only as the repre- sentative of a natural one which has been drowned, as it is impossible to imitate the dancing or hover- ing flight of the real insect over the surface of the stream ; and, even with that restricted idea of its resemblance to nature, the likeness must be scarcely perceptible, owing to the difference of motion, and the great variety of directions in which tlie angler drags his flies, according to the nature and special localities of the current, and the prevailing direc- tion of the wind. The same observations apply, with almost equally few exceptions, to bait-fishing. The minnow is fastened upon swivels, which cause it to revolve upon its axis with such rapidity, that it loses every vestige of its original appearance ; and in angling with the par-tail, one of the most killing lures for large trout, the bait consists of the nether half of a small fish, mangled and mis-shapen, and in every point of view divested of its natural form. Fly-fishing has been compared, though by a somewhat circuitous mode of reasoning, to sculp- ture. It proceeds upon a few simple principles, and the theory is easily acquired, although it may require long and severe labour to become a great master in the art. Yet it is needless to encompass it with difficulties which have no existence in realitv, PHILOSOPHY OF FLY FISHING. 11 or to render a subject intricate and confused, which is in itself so plain and unencumbered. In truth, the ideas which at present prevail on the matter degrade it beneath its real dignity and importance. When Plato, speaking of painting, says that it is merely an art of imitation, and that our pleasure arises from the truth and accuracy of the likeness, he is surely wrong ; for if it were so, where would be the superiority of the Koman and Bolognese over the Dutch and Flemish schools ? So also in regard to fishing : The accomplished angler does not condescend to imitate specifically, and in a servile manner, the detail of things ; he attends, or ought to attend, only to the great and invariable ideas which are inherent in universal nature. He throws his fly lightly and with elegance on the surface of the glittering waters, because he knows that an insect with outspread gauzy wings would so fall ; but he does not imitate (or if he does so, his practice proceeds upon an erroneous principle), either in the air on his favourite element, the flight or the motion of a particular species, because he also knows that trouts are much less conversant in entomology than M. Latreille, and that their om- nivorous propensities induce them, when inclined for food, to rise with equal eagerness at every minute thing which creepeth upon the earth or swimmeth in the waters. On this fact he general- O izes, — and this is the philosophy of fishing. We are therefore of opinion that all, or a great proportion, of what has been so often and some- times so well said about the great variety of flies 12 ANGLING. necessary to an angler, — about the necessity of changing his tackle according to each particular month throughout the season, — about one fly being adapted solely to the morning, another to noonday, and a third to the evening, — and about every river having its own particular flies, &c., is, if not al- together erroneous, at least greatly exaggerated and misconceived. That determinate relations exist between flies of a certain colour and particular con- ditions of a river, is, we doubt not, true ; but these are rather connected with angling as an artificial science, and have but little to do with any analogous relations in nature. The great object, by whatever means to be accomplished, is to render the fly de- ceptive ; and this, from the very nature of things, is continually effected by fishing with flies which differ in colour and appearance from those which prevail upon the water; because in truth, as we shall afterwards have occasion to shew, none else can be purchased or procured. Even admitting, for a moment, the theory of representation, when a particular fly prevails upon a river, an artificial one, in imitation of it, will never resemble it so closely as to appear the same to those below (i. e. the fish) : on the contrary, a certain degree of re- semblance, without any thing like an exact simili- tude, will only render the finny tribe the more cautious through suspicion ; while a different shape and colour, by exciting no minute or invidious comparisons, might probably be swallowed without examination. Indeed, it seems sufficiently plain, that where means of comparison are allowed, and THE WET HUMORIST. 13 where exact imitation is at the same time impos- sible, it is much better to have recourse to a general idea, than to an awkward and bungling individual representation. How often has it been asserted, with all the gravity of sententious wisdom, that the true mode of proceeding in fly-fishing is to busk your hook by the river-side, after beating the shrubs to see what colour of insect prevails. A very ex- pert angler, who perhaps carried the opposite theory rather too far, although he always filled his pan- nier, was in the habit of stirring the briars and willows to ascertain what manner of fly was not there, and with that he tempted the fishes. The man was a humorist in his way, and in this parti- cular case, an erroneous humorist, as many wiser folks have been when driven into one extreme by the foolish prevalence of its opposite. But he certainly had the advantage of his antagonists in a wider field of action and invention, — the world being all before him where to choose, and no especial pocket-book his guide. It moreover argues no small conceit in our dubber of artificial flies, to fancy, that with the harlequin materials of his art, — his furs, feathers, silks, wor- steds, gold and silver twist, " White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery," and seated complacently by some majestic though unconscious river, he can rival nature. Look at his monstrous hands, and still more monstrous handiwork ! Oh ! Moses Harris, thou beautiful limner of the insect world, what wouhTst thou or ANGLING. thy gentle Druiy, thine own considerate Goldsmith — not Oliver but Drew, the old Orfevre — have thought of such proceedings ! What do William Swainson, or John Curtis, or T. O. Westwood think of it even now ! Ye who, pouring your very souls upon your lonely yet much loved labours, will bend for many an hour oner some most fragile form of insect life, and after plying both pen and pencil all the live-long day, will rise dissatisfied with what you deem your vain attempts at representing na- ture, though other eyes are charmed by the exqui- site beauty of your graceful outlines and your gor- geous hues, — what think ye, one and all, of artificial flies ? We pause for a reply. We have witnessed many a weakness in our day, and have more than once seen full grown menj not bad fishers either, — and some of them the fathers of large families of small children, — step with smirk- ing face, not only towards, but actually into an unoffending stream, after having, in a few hasty minutes, dressed several flies, which they declared must unavoidably succeed as counterparts of nature. The last exhibition of the kind we witnessed, was that of a Highlander, a weak vain man, " dressed in a little brief authority,'1 (the kilt, after all, is by no means an inconvenient garb to angle in), who busked a large red hairy fly, as round as an humble- bee, and declared it to be the fac-simile of a frail and fairy creature which we saw at that moment before us, moving like a mote of light along the glittering waters. Yet he killed a fine trout with it, after two or three lumbering casts. Now no- THE KILT A KILLING DRESS. 15 thing could more than this completely prove the truth of two particular points. First, the benig- nity of our own disposition, — the disposition of us who, though long forgetful of entomology, possess above ten thousand kinds of insects, — in thus mildly submitting to see nature herself outraged by being " imitated so abominably ;" secondly, the indis- criminate voracity of this particular trout, and so of trouts in general, in swallowing a piece of barbed steel, surrounded by fiery feathers, the likeness of which had never been seen by any one before, — still less behind. In truth, our natural feeling of anger was converted into blandness, by the very agreement with our theory, of an act in itself so reprehensible ; and when our kilted friend cocked his eye towards ourselves, as much as to say, " What think ye now 2" we submitted without a murmur. He maintains to this day that he has overthrown our theory, never to rise again,- — he maintained it lately even to " Charles Edward," by Beauly's rocky stream, — and yet we forgive him from our heart. The reader will now know what it is to be a Christian. But let us not be misunderstood, in regard to the principles which regulate the actual practice of the art. An accomplished angler knows by ex- perience, that he kills more fish with certain flies than others, and he also discovers that pecu- liar kinds are adapted to particular places, or vary with the season. In this he is a true Baconian, and should act accordingly, but let him not mis- take the posture of affairs, or the great regulating 1 6 ANGLING. principle by which they are directed. A certain form, size, or colour of artificial fly, — we must con- tinue to use the name for want of a better, — is assuredly more captivating than another; it be- comes in some way more deceptive, more delusively, as well as exclusively, adapted to the appetite of the finny tribes; but we repeat again, it is not because it resembles one fly more than another, because no fly swims at any time against the cur- rent of a raging river, several inches under water, and no artificial fly, worked as it usually is by the angler, exhibits the particular aspect of any insect whatsoever. If the gentle reader thinks otherwise, we are sorry for it, and shall be glad to read his reasons, either privately, or in print. Our chief consolation is, that each of us will continue to kill trouts to the end of (his or our predestined) time, the practice of both, we doubt not, being perfect in its way, — the main difference consisting in a theo- retical opinion, which we have thought it right to express, but which fortunately will not affect the actual art of angling, if otherwise skilfully achieved. But to conclude, — as the Rev. Mr. is wont to say, when fearfully far the distance to his latter end. One person thinks, that his artificial lure resembles the insects which he sees upon or near the surface of the water, and that his success in art results from that relation. Reader, art thou the man? If so, be pleased to look again. Out with your pocket-book, or bring it to us, and we will gladly undeceive you by the shew of actual in- sects in all their pride of beauty, and multitudinous THEORY AND PRACTICE RECONCILED. 1 7 as the stars in Heaven. Another person believes, that in this particular branch the most skilful art makes no approach to living nature, and so believ- ing, he wades into lake or river, and ever and anon the stilly air reverberates with a splashing sound, and golden sands grow dim by comparison with lustrous broad-finned forms which lasll the " indig- nant shore," — so potent is the rod of this enchanter. Reader, can he also deem that his success depends on individual imitation? We regret that by an oversight of the Publishers there is no portrait pre- fixed to this volume, otherwise we would have boldly turned to it and said — " Behold the man." We speak, however, on the present department of our subject in sad and serious earnest, because the novelty of our notions on this head has brought us some discredit with the gentle craft, and induced the belief, that we maintain a theory which we do not practise. Now the truth is, that our practice does not greatly differ from our neighbour's, and that the angling world, in general, though theo- retically wrong, is itself also usually right in its actual doings. At all events, it catches multitudes of fishes, which is one great test of truth. Of course, every man is free to maintain his fixed opinion, and on this principle we desire to state, as we have already done, and are still about to do, our own. We never could ourselves perceive any re- semblance whatever between any kind of artificial fly, and any known insect in the natural state. Whether we are unusually deficient in the sense of perceiving similitudes, or are more than usually en- is J 8 ANGLING. dowed with the perception of disresemblances, we cannot say, but this we know, — that possessing the largest collection of insects in Scotland, we recently desired to be brought to us for examination, the whole stock in trade of an extensive and skilful fly- dresser, and on comparing his collection with our own, we could not find a single specimen in the one which' in any reasonable way tallied with a single individual in the other. We really could not help it. We had no personal interest to maintain, and were influenced solely by a love of knowledge. We desired to ascertain the fact, and having ascer- tained it, we now state it, — meaning no offence. But as it is actually true, that flies made of fur and feathers, with silken heads, golden ribs, worsted bottoms, hair legs, and steel tails, bear no resem- blance to winged insects instinct with life, and composed, in their own slight way, of flesh and blood (without bones), — we cannot conceive why our beloved brethren of the angle should persist in the belief, that their success depends on the special likeness which their own garish gear bears to any fixed familiar form of insect life. That the success- ful practice of the art depends, at least at times, in some small measure on the choice of flies, is ad- mitted,— for we know that determinate relations exist between artificial flies of a certain colour, and particular conditions of a river as to size and season ; but these relations are rather connected with angling as a peculiar art (ars celare artem), than as bearing reference to any special analogies of nature. PUT ON THE DRAG BEFORE GOING DOWN. 19 It is admitted, that during mid-summer, when the weather is calm, the sky clear, and the river low, and when what is called fine fishing is neces- sary, such imitation as is possible, both of the ap- pearance and motions of the natural fly, may frequently be tried with advantage ; in which case the tackle may be allowed to drop gently down the stream : but it more usually happens, from the style of fishing practised during the vernal and autumnal states of a river, that the hook is not de- ceptive from its appearing like a winged fly which has fallen from its native element, but from its motion and aspect resembling that of some aquatic insect. When the end of the line first falls on the surface of the water, the fish may be deceived by the idea of a natural fly ; and it is on that account that the angler should throw his tackle lightly and with accuracy, and it is on that account also that we would advise the more frequent throwing of the line : but so soon as the practitioner begins to de- scribe his semicircle across the river, the character of the lure is changed, and the trout then seizes the bait, not as a drowning insect, but as a creature in- habiting its own element, which had ventured too far from the protection of the shallow shore or the sedgy bank. That this is the case, a subsidiary argument may also be drawn from the fact, that in most rivers the greater number and the finest fish are generally killed by the drag-fly, which, during the process of angling, swims an inch or two under water. It is sometimes even advisable so to angle as to convert into drags all the flies in use. 20 ANGLING. We have many a time and oft in early life (even in maturer manhood), whether in smooth expanded lake, or the still stretches of some goodly river, when a sudden lull of wind has fallen upon the waters, and every grey gigantic stone, or craggy rock, or old fantastic tree with silvery stem, was seen reflected in the liquid mirror ; when radiant clouds of snow reposed their castellated glory 'mid the cerulean depth of the inverted sky (yet gazing with grateful heart on that far beaming splendour, which we almost feared to break by word or motion, and of which ourself, a sinful creature, was momen- tarily made a meet partaker), we have then pro- ceeded with our work, as follows. Instead of drag- ging the cast of flies rapidly and continuously along the surface, as is our wont when breezy winds are blowing, and pool or lake With pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils, we throw as long a line as we are able — the reader may well suppose it long — and allow it to lie for several seconds, as if in grim repose. We then point our top towards the water, lowering it to within a foot or two of the surface, and next with slow but sure alternate jerks, somewhat after the mode of salmon fishing, still keeping the point down, we bring the lure towards us. The entire tackle being under water, no disturbance takes place except the gentle prowing of the line, just where it emerges near the rod ; the flies themselves being far away, and at some depth beneath the sur- SAM SLICK THE PROFESSOR LONG TOM. 21 face. Any slight alarm caused by their first descent upon the breezeless water has now subsided, and as they — three favourite flies which we are now to name — do hold the even tenor of their way to- wards the unrippled shore, — " Sam Slick" leading, the " Professor" mid- way, and " Long Tom" at the lag end, all as it were hastening homeward with rapid strides, — no marvel that the attention of some magnificent three pounder, lying in wait below, is suddenly excited: — he rises upwards, at first sedately like a king in court, then the broad pectorals are expanded, as quickly closed, the deep rudder is waved from side to side with powerful sway, a rapid dart ensues, a single pectoral is again protruded for a moment, a slight and instantaneous turn takes place, the jagged jaws are closed, he has seized the Professor, and goes down head foremost with a most indignant flourish of the tail ! Now he may cer- tainly do what he likes with his own, but gentle reader, the tackle is either yours or mine. For the sake of illustration let us suppose it yours. Up then with the tip of your rod, which, owing to the dream-like calm already so well described, and for reasons just assigned, is pointing downwards, and almost in a continuous direction with the line — a most dangerous posture, seeing that the tug of war then rests entirely on the latter, — so up with your rod — which action also serves to strike the fish — and let the reel ring out as it may. Down he continues to go, Sam Slick beat by a couple of lengths, the Professor engulfed, and invisible even to kelpie's eye, and Long Tom also diving down- 22 ANGLING. wards, nolens wlens, at a fearful rate, but wondering greatly what to make of such a sudden change from softly shaded light to dingy darkness. Our spot- ted friend now pauses for a moment, the line slackens, and your heart, though a bold one, beats with fear, for you think him gone for ever ; but no, the tightened line and trilling reel reassure your doubting grasp, and away he goes again, launching lake-ward, as if he really thought of crossing over. Now this freak wont suit you if you are wishing only to wade, have no boat, and can't swim ; so (but not ungently) try to check his speed, or wheel him round, and as one good turn deserves another, he may have his own way on the gridiron to- wards night. Neatly done, youngster. Now he goes onwards right or left, perhaps comes pretty quickly towards you, as if to enquire by whom has been disturbed his solitary reign (reel up, and keep no slack upon your line) — give way again, for behold another burst of virtuous indignation, fol- lowed by a sudden spring of at least a yard into the air. Never mind, — you have proved a tenacious hold, — he begins to peek, and will soon be mollified to your content. He now takes a quiet and rather disagreeable kind of tugging range along the shore, perhaps with no bad intention, nor any definite object in view, but really looking at times as if he were in sober search of some quiet landing place. Do you the same. Behold how sweet a harbour close at hand, — small gravelly stones, and sand, and broken shells, a fairy haunted haven, the shelving neither sudden nor much prolonged, the DEATH AND THE POT. 23 bank — " small by degrees and beautifully less.11 What would ye more, so lead him gently inwards. By Jupiter ! he makes another run and tries to dig, but can't. Alas ! poor Yorick ! His move- ments now are heavy, as if his fins were lead, his mouth is opened wide (see how the fierce Professor, with deep sunk barb, doth hang upon his tongue), languid and sore distressed he wavers to and fro, as if some thickening haze suffused his sight, — he shews his broadening side, blazoned with pearls and gold. How beautiful he looks, as nearing the pebbly shore, his dorsal fin dimples the shallower depths, — no creature swims so softly as a fish. Give him the option now, once more, of land or water. Shorten your line to the utmost, but take care of the top knot, for it does no good within the ring; now he enters the hoped for haven, — lead away, my hearty, — he turns on one side (oh ! goodly gut be strong), his head is out of water, his gills heave, there is a suspicious look- ing movement of the pectoral fins, but your hand has grasped his body just above the tail, and, in another moment, you are sitting together on the green sward, as if you had known each other all your lives. Sic transit gloria truttce. Now, of the noted flies above named, (and we have performed the same feat with each and all), none of the three resembles, or was ever intended to resemble, nature. We ourself invented, in a wayward hour, both Sam Slick and Long Tom, and the Professor, as is well known to the world in general, was called into existence by a younger ANGLING. brother of our own, whose merits in that and many other matters need not our feeble *praise. We mean no offence, but if any created creature, from an angler to an angel, alleges that any trout could have a foreknowledge of our invention, or that of our gifted brother, and that it views our flies as " old familiar faces," we blush not to say he lies— under a huge mistake. Nevertheless, as we know that the progress of truth, though slow, is certain, and having no desire to proselytise, we merely commend our views to the considerate reader, and shall now proceed to ex- plain a few practical principles of the art, as usually received and followed. The great secret in fly-fishing, after a person has acquired the art of throwing a long and a light line, is perseverance, — that is, constant and con- tinuous exertion. Fish are whimsical creatures, even when the angler, with all appliances and means to boot, is placed apparently under the most favourable circumstances. Let him, however, com- mence his operations with flies, which, upon general principles, he knows to be good, — for example, a water-mouse body and dark wing, hare-ear and moorfowl wing, red hackle and teal or mallard wing. It may frequently happen that for an hour, or even two hours, he will kill nothing ; but then it will as often happen, that for another couple of hours, he will pull them ashore with a most pleas- ing celerity. Awake but one, and, lo, what myriads rise ! FISHES AFFECTED BY ELECTRICITY. 25 Next comes a pause of another hour or more, during which little or nothing is obtained, so that if the intermediate period is frittered away on green banks, eating biscuits, success is doubtful or impos- sible. We believe that the appetites and motions of the finny tribes are regulated and directed by certain (to us) almost imperceptible changes in the state of the atmosphere, with which, as they do not proceed from any determinate or ascertained prin- ciples of meteorological science, it is not easy for the angler to become acquainted ; and therefore the only method to remedy the desagrement thus arising, is to fish without ceasing so long as he re- mains by the " pure element of waters." The art of angling, if worthily followed, and with an ob- servant eye, will probably one day or other be the means of throwing considerable light on the science of electricity, at present one of the most obscure, though at the same time the most important and pervading, of all the subjects of physical learning. Professor Forbes has promised us to do something in this line, and will give in his " Report" the first time the British Association holds its meeting at Aberfoyle or Rowardennan. The best natural flies, either to use fresh, or to serve as models for the artificial kinds, are — First, the different sorts of stoneflies (Phryyanea and Limnephilus), which are usually found by the water side. Their common colours are various shades of brown ; they have pretty long feelers or antennae, which in a state of repose are bent over their shoulders and along their sides ; their wings 26 ANGLING. are held decumbent, or close to the sides. They fly heavily, and are produced from aquatic larvae called caddis-bait or case-worms, remarkable for their curious dwelling-places, which are hollow tubes composed of sand, small shells, and pieces of wood, agglutinated together, and made heavier or lighter according to circumstances, that they may the more easily sink or swim. They are open at either end, and the worm crawls along the stones and gravel, by protruding its legs at the anterior extremity. They disencumber themselves from their aquatic habita- tions, and assume the winged state in spring and the earlier part of summer. Secondly, the different kinds of May flies (Ephemera?), called green drakes, &c. are also produced from larvae, which, for a long time previous to their appearance as perfect insects, have inhabited the waters. There are many species of this genus, all of which are greedily sought for by trout. They are easily known by their tapering abdomens, veined wings, short antennae, and the long slender setae or hairs which terminate their bodies. They chiefly abound from May to mid- summer. Thirdly, The small black or ant-fly, is the winged female of the common black ant, and occurs in the nests or hills of that insect during the summer and autumnal months. There is scarcely any season of the year, except- ing an ice-bound winter, in which an experienced angler may not successfully ply his trade.* In the * Although Izaak Walton, that " great master in the art of ang- ling," informs us that no man should in honesty catch a trout till the middle of March, yet the grayling is in best condition during the THE HAPPY MEDIUM. 27 mid-summer season, when the pools are very clear and shallow, and the streams almost dried up, little can be done without a stirring breeze ; so also after a heavy summer flood, immediately ensuing a con- tinuance of dry weather, when the mountain torrents are a sheet of dingy foam, and the crystal depths of the river are converted for a time into an opaque flow of muddy water, the fly-fisher's occupation^ gone. But when the turmoil ceases, and the soft south wind begins to disperse or break in upon the dense array of clouds, so as to chequer the streams, and rocks, and " pastoral melancholy" of the green mountains with the enlivening beams of the re- turning sun, with what pleasure does the angler ap- proach the banks of a favourite and accustomed river ! How various and delightful are his sensations! Custom cannot stale their infinite variety. On the contrary, the longer and more assiduously the plea- sure is pursued, the greater the immediate enjoy- ment, and the more extended the train of agreeable remembrances for after days. How exciting the first cast into a breeze-ruffled pool, when the unwetted gut still lies in rebellious and unyielding circles on the surface, and yet almost at the same moment the winter season. " I do assure you," says Charles Cotton, in the second part of the Complete Angler, " which I remember by a very remark- able token, I did once take, upon the sixth day of December, one and only one, of the biggest graylings, and the best in season, that ever I yet saw or tasted ; and do usually take trouts too, and with a fly, not only before the middle of this month, but, almost every year in February, unless it be a very ill spring indeed ; and have some- times in January, so early as new-year's tide, and in frost and snow taken grayling in a warm sun-shine day for an hour or two about noon ; and to fish for him with a grub it is then the best tune of all." 28 ANGLING. sounding reel gives notice that these circles have been instantaneously stretched into a straight and tightened line ! Then comes the long and continu- ous vibration of rod and reel, indicating the secure hooking of a goodly fish ; or that sullen and pulse- like tug, by which a still goodlier one, when hooked in a deep pool, frequently manifests a desire to dig its way to the bottom ; or that more interrupted music which results from the fantastic leaps of some whimsical individual, which skims and flounders on the top of the water like a juvenile wild-duck. The ordinary rules for fly-fishing are, to be most assiduous when the streams are somewhat disturbed and increased by rain, — when the day is cloudy, and the waters moved by a gentle breeze, especially from the south. If the river contains long placid pools, then a steady stirring breeze is very desirable, as angling in such situations re- sembles lake-fishing, where little can be achieved upon a glassy surface. If the wind is low and the weather clear, of course the best angling is in the swiftest streams, and in those curling and perturbed eddies which head the smoother depths. In fishing the smoother pools of no great depth, be careful that the shadows of neither rod nor angler come upon the surface ; but if a person is skilful in other re- spects— and able to swim — he need not fear his own shadow on a broad river, but wade boldly down the centre of the stream, fishing its various depths and currents before him and on either side. In clear rivers the flies should be small and rather slender- winged ; but when the waters are muddy or in- WILLING TO WOUND BUT YET AFRAID TO STRIKE. 29 creased by rain, a larger lure may be made use of. When the streams are brown with rain, an orange- coloured fly is good ; in very clear weather a light- coloured one ; and a dark fly, with a turn or two of gold or silver twist, is advisable for troubled waters. Though a great deal, no doubt, depends on a quick eye and an active and delicate hand, we are no great advocates for what is called striking a fish. If a large trout rises in a deep pool, it may be of advan- tage so to do ; and this will be sufficiently accom- plished by inclining the rod quickly upwards or aside (if in the latter direction, then towards the tail of the fish, so as not to drag the fly from its mouth), in such a manner as to draw out a few inches of the line ; for if the reel is not allowed to run, this operation is apt to snap the gut, or otherwise injure the tackle. But if a trout, whether great or small, rises in a current or rapid stream, the sudden change in its position, immediately after it has seized the fly, is generally quite sufficient to fix the barb, without any exertion on the part of the angler. A variable state of the atmosphere is not good for angling ; but neither is a uniformly dull gloomy day the most favourable. It is scarcely possible to lay down any general rules on this branch of the subject, — and this is of the less consequence, seeing that although we may " Tax the elements with unkindness," we can no more gladden a gloomy or subdue a glaring day, than when desirous to cross a ford, we can add a cubit to our stature. We 30 ANGLING. have angled in vain through many a bright consum- mate morn, — no " dread magnificence" in heaven, and when the odds in our favour were as a salmon to a sand-eel. We have half filled a pannier during an electric hail-storm, when " sky lowered and mut- tered thunder," and the aspect of the day was such as to deter more experienced though less zealous sportsmen from leaving the shelter of their homes. But if the river is not too low, we always prefer what in ordinary language might be called a fine cheerful day, more particularly if there is a fresh breeze. And what we would more particularly press upon the notice of the angler, as soon as he becomes master of the line, is that he should cast his flies more frequently than is the usual practice, and, generally speaking, fish rapidly. This should be more especially attended to in streams where the trout are numerous and not large. Before enumerating and describing the different kinds of artificial flies in greatest repute, we shall mention a few of the principal materials used by the fly-fisher. The articles which he employs, in com- mon with those who prosecute the other branches of the trade, are of course, rods, hair and gut lines, reels and hooks, panniers and landing-nets ; but, in addition to these he must be provided with a great variety of feathers, such as the slender plumes called hackles, from the necks and backs of common poultry, and the wings of a considerable number of birds, such as woodcocks, snipes, rails, plovers, ducks, grouse, partridges, and others. The furs of quadrupeds are also indispensable ; and of these the PARROTS AND OTHER POULTRY. 31 most useful are hares, squirrels, moles, martens, mice, and water-rats. The most esteemed hackles are the duns. The red, striped down the centre with black, and the red with a blackish root, are likewise useful, and more easily obtained. Since the introduction of Spanish poultry (by which name are designated the black breed with white tops), black hackles are now more common than formerly. The proper time for plucking hackles is about Christmas. The feathers of the ostrich and peacock are of frequent service ; and for salmon and sea-trout the gaudy plumes of parrots and other brilliantly attired foreign species, however unlike the adornment of any known insects, ought to be collected by every fly-fisher. The silks commonly used by the angler are of three kinds : — 1st, Barbers1 silk, used double, for splicing the top-pieces of rods ; 2<%, a more deli- cate kind, for fastening on the rings through which the reel-line runs ; Sdly, fine netting silk for whip- ping hooks and dressing flies. When we mention a pair of small pliers, fine-pointed scissors, needles, and wax, we have noted the principal materials for the angler's trade. In regard to rods, their length and formation are so much matters of individual taste, that few gene- ral rules can be laid down upon the subject. Ac- cording to Daniel, the wood should be cut about Christmas, and allowed to season for a twelvemonth . Hazel is very generally used, especially that from the cob-nut, which grows to a great length, and is for the most part very straight and taper. The 32 ANGLING. but-end should rather exceed an inch in diameter, and the shoots for stocks, middle-pieces, and tops, should be as free from knots as possible. The tops are made from the best rush ground shoots. All these pieces should be kept free from moisture till the ensuing autumn, when such as are required to form a rod are selected ; and, after being warmed over a gentle fire, they are set as straight as pos- sible, and laid aside for several days. They are then rubbed over, by means of a piece of flannel, with linseed oil, which produces a polish, and brings off the superfluous bark : they are then bound tight to a straight pole, and kept till next spring, by which time they will be seasoned for use. They are then matched together in due proportions, in two, three, or more parts, according to the desired length, or the opinion of the maker as to the num- ber of pieces of which a rod should be composed. A well-constructed spliced rod of no more than two pieces, casts a line with fully as much force, neat- ness, and accuracy as any other ; but it is incon- venient to a traveller, or to any one whose dwelling is not upon the water side. If the pieces are not ferruled, they must be spliced so as to join each other with great exactness. The principal object to be kept in view in the formation of rods in general is, that they should taper gradually and bend regularly. A frequent defect is their bending too much in the middle, owing to that part not being sufficiently strong. We have said that the length of a rod is rather a matter of taste than of established rule. It must, THE ROD WITHOUT THE GUN. S3 however, bear a relation to the size of the river and the nature of the expected capture. A trout ing- rod is usually made from 12 to 14 feet in length, though some prefer them of greater extent, as giv- ing more command over lakes and spreading pools. It should be made as light as is consistent with strength and durability, as a heavy rod is cumber- some, fatiguing, and unwieldy; and a light one gives a more ready power in casting under hollow banks, or among trees or bushes. For pike and barbel a proper length is 1 6 feet ; for perch, chub, bream, carp, eels, and tench, a shorter rod may be used ; and 8 or 10 feet is sufficient for dace, gudgeon, ruff, bleak, &c. The portability of a rod depends of course on the number of joints ; but its excellence being almost in the inverse ratio, care must be taken not to sacrifice its goodness merely for the sake of a convenient form. According to Mr. Bainbridge, the best rods are made from ash, hickery, and lancewood ; ash for the bottom piece, hickery for the middle, and lance- wood for the top-joints. If real bamboo can be procured of good quality, it is preferable to lance- wood. Rosewood and partridgewood from the Brazils may also be used for the top-pieces. The extreme length of the top-piece is usually composed of a few inches of whalebone. The rings for the reel-line may be made by twisting a piece of soft brass-wire round a tobacco-pipe, and soldering the ends together. They ought to diminish in size as they are made to approach the top, and must form a straight and regular line with each other when 34 ANGLING. the rod is put up for use. But as few anglers re- quire to make their own rods, we really deem it unnecessary to enter into full details of a me- chanical practice which can only be sufficiently executed by an individual of professional experience. We shall merely mention, that, in addition to the woods already named, elder, holly, yew, mountain- ash, and briar, all of which are indigenous to this country, furnish materials to the makers of rods. In finishing a rod the usual varnish is copal varnish, or Indian rubber dissolved over a slow fire in lin- seed oil. It may be stained by a dilution of nitric acid or oil of vitriol. When rods are stored for the winter, after use, they ought to be rubbed over with tallow or salad oil. As lines may be purchased from the tackle- makers at a cheaper rate than they can be made by an amateur, whose time and labour are of value for any other purpose, we shall not here enter into a detail of their formation. The best hair is pro- cured from the tail of a well-grown stallion. Black hair is generally strong, but the colour is not very serviceable. Transparent and almost colourless hair is the most approved ; and it ought to be round, regular, and free from blemishes. In the formation of lines each hair in a link should be equal, round, and even, which proportions the strength and prevents single hairs from breaking, and thus weakening the others. Chestnut or brown- coloured hairs are best for ground angling, espe- cially in muddy water. Some anglers stain their lines a pale green for fishing, in weedy waters. HOW TO " SET THE DYE UPON A CAST." 35 Black is occasionally used in streams which flow from mosses, and are themselves of an unusually dingy hue. The following are some of the methods used by anglers for dyeing their lines, whether of hair or gut. For a pale watery green. — To a pint of strong ale add (as soon as possible, as it is so apt to evaporate when good) half a pound of soot, a small quantity of walnut leaves, and a little powdered alum (then drink the remaining pint of ale, if you happen to have drawn a quart) ; boil these materials for half or three-quarters of an hour, and when the mixture is cold, steep the gut or hair in it for ten or twelve hours. For a brown. — Boil some powdered alum till it is dissolved ; add a pound of walnut-tree bark from the branches when the sap is in them, or from the buds, or the unripe fruit. Let the liquid stand till nearly cool, and skim it ; then put in the gut or hair, and stir it round for about a minute, or till it appears to have imbibed the desired tint. It ought not to be strongly tinctured, as it is apt to rot when too dark. For a bluish watery tint the above ingredients are also used, with the substitution of logwood instead of walnut. For a yellow. — The inner bark of a crab-tree boiled in water, with some alum, makes a good yellow, excellent for staining tackle used among decayed weeds, the colour of which it closely re- sembles. A tawny hue is obtained by steeping hair among 36 ANGLING. lime and water for four or five hours, and then allowing it to soak for a day in a tan-pit. In the absence of other ingredients, both gut and hair may be easily stained by being left for twenty-four hours in strong tea, either with or without a few logwood scrapings. In the former case you had better not drink the tea. The hair to be dyed ought to be selected from the best white. Silken or hempen lines may be tinted by a decoction of oak bark, which is said to udd to the durability of these materials. We shall speak of flies, both small and great, when we come to treat in more detail of trout and salmon. But we may here observe that the rich and varied supply of all kinds of tackle, which may be obtained in the shops of the principal dealers in our larger cities, induces us to abstain from extended descriptions of the angler's gear, especially of the different hooks employed in minnow and other bait- fishing, as such details are not very intelligible without the aid of numerous engravings. More knowledge will be gained by a few minutes' inspec- tion of the articles themselves in the hands of an intelligent workman, than can be conveyed by the most elaborate treatise on the subject. 38 ANGLING. tribute, not only to his scientific knowledge, but his social comfort, — trouts when newly angled and nicely fried, being worthy of admiration, as choice productions of nature adorned by the skill of art. But this latter branch of our subject comes so home to the ." business and bosoms" of all men, that we need not here dilate upon it. In the hope, however, that some useful knowledge may be conveyed to the minds of our young readers through the medium of the present work, we intend to devote a portion of our space to. a brief introduc- tion regarding the organic structure and physiology of fishes. We know, from experience, that time may hang heavy even on the hands of anglers, who are seldom either feeble or faint-hearted men. We know that spring (all genial though it be in poet^s fancy) has yet its frequent flaky snows on mead and mountain, its spiky ice along the crystal stream ; — that summer in its sun-lit splendour suffers its long- enduring droughts, its sudden speats, and fearful overflows ; — that melancholy autumn, in spite of all its mild effulgence, is not seldom vio- lent, and perturbed " By lightning, by fierce winds, by trampling waves ; " — and that each of these conditions of time and space is adverse to the angler's art. Even with every sweet advantage yielded by cheerful spring, by glorious summer, by refulgent autumn (we now seek to sooth the seasons by more endearing terms), daylight does not last for ever, and so the angler cannot always ply his trade. Of night fish- 39 ing we seldom think, — except in murmuring dreams of rheumatism and water-rats, — and eye-sight often fails, " When comes still evening on, and twilight grey Has in her sober livery all things clad." Moreover, it is chiefly the home-haunting angler, he whose " lines have fallen in pleasant places," who dwells habitually by river side, or sees " beneath the opening eyelids of the morn'" some broad an- cestral lake gladdening his daily gaze, — in moon- light sparkling with bright columnar fire within its cincturing trees, or greener margins, — he, or some happy friend who shares his dwelling, alone can cast his angles in the night. No man, who " long in populous city pent," wanders for a time in lone- some gladness by the side of glittering waters, can wait with patience for a summer night, however beautiful may be the countless stars — " That sparkle in the firmament of June." Whether he will or no, he must wend his way to grassy bank, or pebbly shore, or alder-skirted brink, and if there he fishes all the live-long day, he cannot fish at night, at least he ought not so to do. He who spareth not the rod hateth himself, and produces a degree of fatigue and satiety which ought never to mingle with his healthful toil. Suppose, then, that the gentle reader does not fish at night, that he dines heartily (sero sed serio), imbibes moderately, takes tea sedately, and has still an hour to spare before a light supper, — let 40 ANGLING. him read this book, and we promise to be as little prolix as we can. We take it for granted that his dress is decent and very dry, — we have seen a row of anglers sitting arrayed in blankets, and enduring rather to resemble ancient Eomans than sit in wet , — for all sportsmen should, at least to that extent, be influenced by a love of change, — that the mists of evening, like gigantic snakes of down, have stretched their folds " voluminous and vast" along the river courses, and that he has drawn himself and chair towards a clear light fire, with feet on fender (sofas are few in fishing districts), and conscience free from guile. Let him then read what follows, or portions of the same, but not aloud, lest he should disturb the slumbers of his quiet friend, who has just laid his forehead in his hands, and his hands on the ma- hogany. Peace to the ashes — of his cigar. SECTION II. External Form and Attributes of Fishes. To aid the Angler in his scientific researches, as well as to add to the interest of the ordinary ob- server, we now proceed to a brief exposition of the principal characteristics of the class of fishes, and shall, at an after period, expatiate upon the more peculiar attributes of each particular kind, when we come to treat of the species in their order. TRIFLES LIGHT AS AIR. 41 We need scarcely say to the student of nature, that the form and functions of fishes are as ad- mirably adapted for easy movement through the water, as are those of birds for that aerial motion called flight. Suspended in a liquid element of almost equal specific gravity with themselves, ex- ternal organs resembling those of birds in size, would have been disproportionate and unnecessary ; but the air-bladder (the functions of which, by no means entirely understood, have never been satis- factorily explained in all their bearings) is known to possess the power of contraction and dilatation, the exercise of which is followed by a corresponding descent or ascent of the animal's body. Thus a small central and inconspicuous organ effects, in the easiest and most simple manner, the same ob- ject which even the soaring eagle or giant condor can only accomplish by great exertion of the wings, and after laborious and frequently repeated gyra- tions. We shall ere long, however, have occasion to remark in more detail, that the air-bladder, al- though essential to the economy of such species as possess it, is by no means indispensable as a gene- ral attribute of the class, as in many tribes it is entirely wanting. It is not even a generic cha- racteristic, as it does not exist in the red mullets of the British seas, though possessed by the cor- responding species of Asia and America, — while of our two kinds of mackerel, the so called Spanish species (Scomber colias) is distinguished by a swimming bladder, and the common mackerel (Sc. scomber) does not possess that organ. ANGLING. Fishes being without a neck, and the portion called the tail being usually equal at its origin to the part of the body from which it springs, the prevailing shape is somewhat uniform and con- tinuous, diminishing gradually towards either ex- tremity. Of this, the most elegant and charac- teristic form of fishes, the salmon and mackerel exhibit familiar examples. Yet a vast variety of shape, as well as of size and colour, is naturally presented by a class which now contains some seven or eight thousand known species; and no further illustration of the subject will be deemed necessary by him who has seen and remembers the difference between an eel and a skate. The mouth of fishes either opens from beneath, as in the rays, or at the extremity of the muzzle, as in the great majority of species, or from the upper surface, as in a small foreign group called Uranoscopus, or moon-gazer, — an odd name for species, some of which have been alleged to bury themselves to the depth of twenty feet in sand, — a bed not easily obtained, and in no way fitted for astronomical observation. It also varies much in its relative dimensions, from the minute perforation of the genus Centriscus, to the vast expanded gape of the ugly angler-fish. We mean nothing per- sonal in the last allusion. The teeth of fisheS are frequently very numerous, and are sometimes spread over all the bony parts of the interior cavity of the mouth and pharynx, that is, on the maxillary, inter-maxillary and palatal bones, on the vomer, tongue, branchial arches, and GOOD OPENING FOR A YOUNG DENTIST. 43 pharyngeal bones. In certain genera they exist on all those parts ; while in others they are wanting on some, or are even entirely absent on all. The denominations of the teeth are derived from their position, that is from the bones to which they are attached, and are consequently as numerous as the varieties of their situation. In the upper portion of the mouth of a trout, for example, there are five rows of teeth. The single middle-row is placed upon the central bone of the mouth called the vomer ; a row on each side of it is fixed on the right and left palatal bones, while the outer-rows or those of the upper -jaw, properly so called, are situate on the maxillary bones. In the under por- tion of the mouth there are four rows, that is, one on each side of the tongue, and another external to these on each side of the lower-jaw. As to the form of teeth in fishes, the majority are hooked and conical, and more or less acute. In the majority of osseous fishes, besides the lips, which, even when fleshy, having no peculiar muscles, can exert but little strength in retaining the ali- ments, there is generally in the inside of each jaw, behind the anterior teeth, a kind of membranous fold or valvule, formed by a replication of the interior skin, and directed backwards, of which the effect is to hinder the alimentary substances, and especially the water gulped during respiration, from escaping again by the mouth. This structure does not, as formerly supposed, constitute a character restricted to the genus Zeus, but exists in an infinity of fishes. 44 ANGLING. SECTION III. Nutrition and Growth of Fishes. THE food seized by the teeth of the maxillae, and detained by the valve just mentioned, is carried still further backwards by the teeth of the palate and tongue, when these exist, and is at the same time prevented by the dentations of the branchial arches from penetrating between the intervals of the branchiae, where it might injure those delicate organs of respiration. The movements of the maxillae and tongue can thus send the food only in the direction of the pharynx, where it undergoes additional action on the part of the teeth of the pharyngeal bones, which triturate or carry it backwards into the oeso- phagus. The last-named portion is clothed by a layer of strong, close set, muscular fibres, some- times forming various bundles, the contractions of which push the alimentary matter into the stomach, —thus completing the act of deglutition. The nutritive functions of fishes follow the same order of progression as those of the other classes of the vertebrated kingdom. They seize, and in some measure divide, their food with their teeth ; they digest it in the stomach, from whence it passes into the intestinal canal, where it receives a supply of bile from the liver, and frequently a liquid simi- lar to that of the pancreas ; the nutritive juices, absorbed by vessels analogous to lacteals, and pro- bably taken up in part also directly by the veins, GENERAL VORACITY OF FISHES. 45 are mingled with the venous blood which is flowing towards the heart, from whence it is pushed to the branchiae, in which, coming into contact with the water, it is converted into arterial blood, and then proceeds to the nourishment of the whole body. Fishes are in general extremely voracious, and the rule of " eat or be eaten," applies to them with unusual force. They are almost constantly engaged either in the active pursuit or patient waiting for their prey, — their degree of power in its capture depending of course on the dimensions of the mouth and throat, and the strength of the teeth and jaws. If the teeth are sharp and curved, they are capable of seizing and securing either a large and fleshy bait, or the slenderest and most agile animal ; if these parts are broad and strong they are able to bruise the hardest aliment ; if they are feeble or almost wanting, they are only serviceable in pro- curing some inert or unresisting prey. Fishes in- deed, in most instances, shew but little choice in the selection of their food, and their digestive powers are so strong and rapid as speedily to dis- solve all animal substances. They greedily swal- low other fishes, notwithstanding the sharp spines or bony ridges with which they may be armed ; they attack and devour crabs and shell-fish, gulping them entire without the least regard to the feelings of their families ; they do not object occasionally to swallow the young even of their own species, and the more powerful kinds carry their warfare into other kingdoms of nature, and revel on rats, reptiles, and young ducklings, to say nothing, gentle reader, 46 ANGLING. of the ferocious shark, which not seldom makes a meal even of the lord of the creation. A parti- cular friend of our own, now in Scotland, has his right leg in the West Indies, in consequence of an act of aggression alike unpleasant and uncalled for, and which a Christian-minded pedestrian finds it easier to forgive than forget. The species which live chiefly on vegetables are few in number, almost all fishes preferring pork to green peas. The growth of these creatures depends greatly on the nature and amount of food, — different indi- viduals of the same species exhibiting a large disparity in their dimensions. They grow less rapidly in small ponds or shallow streams, than in large lakes and deep rivers. We once kept a minnow, little more than half an inch long, in a small glass vessel for a period of two years, during which time there was no perceptible increase in its dimensions. Had it continued in its native stream, subjected to the fattening influence of a continuous flow of water, and a consequent increase in the quantity and variety of its natural food, its cubic dimensions would probably have been twenty times greater ; yet it must have attained, long prior to the lapse of a couple of years, to the usual period of the adult state. The growth itself seems to continue, under favourable circumstances, for a length of time, and we can scarcely set bounds to, certainly we know not with precision, the utmost range of the specific size of fishes. Salmon sometimes at- tain a weight of eighty pounds and upwards, and the giant pike of Kaiserslautern, is alleged to have SEEK TRUTH AND PURSUE IT. 47 measured nineteen feet, and to have weighed 350 pounds. No doubt, an incorrect allegation does not in any way increase the actual size of fishes, and few people now-a-days can take exact cognizance of what was done at Mannheim in the year 1497 ; but, even in these degenerate days, amid our own translucent waters, and among species in no way remarkable for their ordinary dimensions, we ever and anon meet with ancient individuals , which vastly exceed the usual weight and measure of their kind. But, in spite of this, let no angler, whether in the bloom of early youth, the power of matured man- hood, or with the silver locks of " hoar antiquity11 above his wrinkled brow, ever induce within him- self, or express to others, the belief, that at all times and places he is perpetually catching enormous trouts in vast numbers, because we happen to know that this is not the case. We don't insist upon any one weighing every fish he captures, but we request that no one after jerking out a few parr, will main- tain next morning, or even that very night, that he has had a most toilsome but very glorious day, and has killed five dozen and four of the finest trouts the human eye ever gazed upon. " All men are liars" — and several anglers — is a proposition the exact import of which depends much on the mode of construction. 48 ANGLING. SECTION IV. The Osteology of Fishes. THE most important characters of the sides of the head are derived from the pre-opercle, and the adjacent parts which form the gill-covers, — that is the opercle, the sub-opercle, and the inter-opercle. The head of fishes usually consists of about sixty bones — the amount being sensibly greater in such species as have the upper maxillary subject to divi- CRANIUM OF PERCH. sion. The accompanying cut of the cranium of the perch, with the subjoined enumeration of the parts, will suffice to illustrate the subject with greater BONES OF THE HEAD. 49 satisfaction to the reader than is likely to result from a more lengthened verbal disquisition.* In regard to the texture of the bones of fishes, their skeletons are either bony, fibro-cartilaginous, or truly cartilaginous. These distinctive appella- tions must be borne in mind by whoever studies — in books — the natural history of fishes, as the great primary divisions of the subject are based upon the characters which the above terms indicate. The species distinguished by the last named cha- racter are the chondropterygian group, such as sturgeons, sharks, and rays, all of which exhibit * Enumeration of the principal bones of the head, with reference to the figures in the preceding cut. Cranium. Palatal arch, temporal boties, <|-c. 1. Principal Frontal. 22. Palatal. 2. Anterior Frontal. 23. Temporal. 3. Ethmoidal. 24. Transverse. 4. Posterior Frontal. 25. Internal pterogoid. 5. (Basilary.) 26. Jugal. 6. Sphenoid. 27. Tympanal. 7. Parietal. 10. Occipital lateral. 28. Opercle. 11. Great ala, or temporal ala. 29. (Styloid.) 12. Mastoidean. 30. Pre-opercle. 13. (Rupes.) 31. Sympletic. 14. Orbitaryala. 32. Sub-opercle. 15. Anterior sphenoid. 33. Inter-opercle. 16. Vomer. Lower-Jaw. Upper-Jaw. u Denta] 17. Intermaxillary. 35. Articular. 18. Maxillary. 36. Angular. (37.n OQ Nasal, suborbitary, and supra-tem- og " i poral bones. 40* \ Hyoid and lingual bones. 19. (First suborbitary.) 4l! 20. Nasal. 42. J 21. Supra- temporal. 43. Branchiostegous rays. 50 ANGLING. throughout the whole of their frame work, in their branchiae (the external border of which is fixed to the skin, and through which the water is allowed to escape only by narrow openings), and in other important parts of their organization, distinctive characters which obviously separate them from all other fishes. They are in fact destitute of true bones, their harder parts consisting only of a homo- geneous and semitransparent cartilage, which is merely Covered on the surface in certain genera by a layer of small, opaque, calcareous granules, closely set together. In the Lampreys even this envelope is wanting, while among the Ammoccetes the skele- ton continues in an actually membranous condition. The sturgeons and chimerae partake in some manner of the lamprey character in relation to the softness of their spines, but the first named genus is possessed of many true bones of the head and shoulder. Other fishes differ in their osteological character chiefly in the hardness of their skeleton, and it is without reason that the fibro-cartilaginous kinds have been associated by some authors with the Chondropterygii. The calcareous matter, that is, the phosphate of lime, is deposited in layers and fibres in the cartilage which forms the basis of their bones, precisely in the same manner as among the hard-boned species, but less abundantly ; and the texture of the bone never becomes so hard and homogeneous as among the osseous kinds. Thus O O in Tetradon mola we perceive, as it were, only scat- tered fibres amid the membranes, and in Lophius TEXTURE OF FISH BONES. 51 piscatorius, they are nearly as soft. The other Tetradons and Diodons, the Balistes and Ostracions, have denser bones ; and in some species these parts can scarcely be distinguished from those of the osseous fishes. It is certain, also, that the bony frame-work of the fibro- cartilaginous kinds is con- structed on the same plan as that of the truly osse- ous species, and not in accordance, with those of the Chondropterygii ; and it is in opposition to the known truth of nature that both Artedi and Lin- naeus have denied them the possession of opercula and branchiostegous rays. The Balistes have even ribs, — their only osteological difference consisting in the granulation of their jaws ; while the Syngnathi have regular bony jaws, although they want the ribs and branchiostegous rays. The majority of osseous fishes have bones fully harder than those of other animals, and it is quite a gratuitous assumption to suppose that the observed longevity of certain species arises from the softer consistence of those parts. Certain fish bones, in fact, exhibit neither pores nor fibres, and appear almost vitreous to the eye. But neither the osseous nor the cartilaginous kinds have either epiphyses to the bones, or medullary canal within them; al- though there are some, such as the trouts, in which the tissue of the bones is more or less penetrated by an oily juice ; while in others, such as the dory, the internal portion continues cartilaginous, while the surface is completely ossified. Finally, in cer-' tain species, while the general skeleton is very hard, 52 ANGLING. particular portions of it are cartilaginous. Such are the bones which form the head of the pike. When viewed in relation to their general struc- ture, the bones of fishes, like those of other verte- brated animals, are composed of an organic base penetrated by earthy matter. The latter consists of phosphate of lime and of magnesia, with oxide of iron, supposed to be united to phosphoric acid. There is also a certain portion of subcarbonate of lime. The animal matter is of two kinds : — the one, of an azotised nature, forms the base of the cartilage ; the other is fatty, in the form of a per- vading oil. The cartilage of fish bones differs from that of mammalia and birds, in as far as it yields no gelatine when subjected to the process of boiling. The head, possessing many more moveable parts than that of quadrupeds, is subdivisible into nu- merous regions, such as the cranium, the maxillae, the bones beneath the cranium, and behind the jaws, and which aid the movement and suspension of the latter ; the bones of the opercles, which open and shut the overtures of the branchiae ; the bones, almost exterior, which surround the nostrils, the eye, and the temples, or which cover a portion of the cheek. In the majority of fishes, the inter- maxillary bone (17) forms the edge of the upper jaw, and has behind it the maxillary (18), com- monly called the mystax, or labial bone. A palatal arch (22, &c.) constructed of many parts, consti- tutes, as among birds and snakes, a kind of interior jaw, and provides posteriorly an articulation to the A GILL OF WATER. 53 lower jaw, which is usually composed of two pieces, — a dental and articular portion, 34 & 35. Besides the somewhat complicated apparatus of the branchial arches, the hyoid bone bears on each side of it certain osseous rays, 43, which support the branchial membrane ; and a peculiar kind of lid or clapper, commonly called the gill cover, and composed of three bony pieces (the opercle 28, the sub-opercle 32, and the inter-opercle 33) com- bine with that membrane to close the great open- ing of the gills. This covering articulates with the tympanal, 27, and plays upon the pre-opercle, 30. In the Chondropterygian groups, however, the general structure of these parts is much more simple. The three opercular pieces just mentioned, do not of themselves effect the closure of those great clefts observable on each side of a fish, between the head and shoulder, and within which are the respiratory organs or branchiae. This closure is completed by the branchiostegous membrane, which adheres to the hyoid bone. This bone is placed as in other vertebrated animals, but is always sus- pended to the temporal bones. It is composed of two branches, each consisting of five pieces, viz. the styloid, by which it is suspended to the temporal; two large lateral pieces, 37* & 38, placed one be- hind the other, and forming the principal portion of the branch (the posterior, 38, being that which * No. 37 is invisible in our woodcut. The same may be noted re- garding one or two other bones, enumerated in a preceding note, the names of which are inclosed in parenthesis. E 54 ANGLING. attaches to the inter-operculum) ; lastly, two small pieces, 39 & 40, placed one above the other at the anterior extremity of the branch, and serving to unite it with the corresponding portion of the other side. Anterior to this junction is the lingual bone, 41, and behind it, in the angle formed by the meeting of the two branches, and beneath the branchiae, is a single piece, 42, usually vertical, which uniting with the symphyses of the numerals, forms what is called the isthmus, — separating the two branchial openings from below. VERTEBRAE, ETC. OF PERCH. The bones of the body, or trunk, consist of the vertebrae of the back and tail, 67, 68, 69, — for we can scarcely say that there is any neck, and the sacrum is wanting ; of ribs, 72, and the styles which frequently adhere to them, 73 ; of the inter- spinal bones, 74, which give support to the dorsal and anal fins, 75, and 75a ; and of the rays of those fins, 75, 75a, and of the caudal, 78, 71. These ANTERIOR MEMBERS. 55 rays, whether branched and articulated, or simply spinous, may be always divided lengthways into halves. The vertebrae are characterised by the conical hollow on each side of their faces. Double hollow cones are thus formed in the interval between two vertebrae, filled by a soft membranous and gelatinous substance, which passes from one void to another by means of an opening through each vertebra, and thus forms, as it were, a gelatinous chaplet througn the whole. As in the other vertebrated classes, there is an annular opening through the superior portion, for the passage of the spinal marrow. Fish rarely possess a sternum properly so called, and when it does exist, it is formed of almost exter- nal pieces, which unite the inferior extremities of the ribs. The anterior members, of which the external por- tion is commonly called the pectoral fin, 53a, con- sist, in the first place, of a suite of bones on each side immediately behind the orifice of the gills, and which form a kind of frame on which the opercle rests when closed. These bones, usually attached to the head above, and uniting together below, form an osseous belt which almost encircles the body. Their inferior symphysis unites by ligaments to the tail of the hyoid bone, 42 (see cut of Cranium), and forms with it the isthmus, which separates the ex- ternal openings of the gills from each other beneath, just as the cranium separates them above. This cincture, when complete, is composed on each side of three bones, which represent the shoulder and the 56 ANGLING* arm, to which adheres posteriorly a group of two or three others, occupying the place of the fore-arm, and bearing the pectoral fin, which may be considered as the hand; lastly, there is almost always sus- pended a style, composed of one or two bones, 49, 50, which Baron Cuvier regards as the analogue of the coracoid bone. The uppermost of these first three bones, 46, is usually forked, and attached by its two crests to the lateral crests of the cranium. It shews itself externally at the top of the branchial opening, resembling a scale, larger than the others, and sometimes toothed along its edges . The second, 47, continues along the margin of the branchial opening. The third, 48, always the largest, com- pletes the cincture by uniting with its counterpart beneath the throat. To the inner surface of the last mentioned bone adheres a fourth, 51, and a fifth, 52, placed one above the other. The free side of these bones bears the pectoral fin, but by means of an intermediate range of four or five small bones, 53. These little osseous pieces may be supposed to represent the carpal series ; and if so, then the two others, 51 & 52, will be the cubitus and radius. The third bone of the cincture, 48, which supports the two last named, will then neces- sarily represent the humerus, and the first and second, 46, 47, the shoulder blade. The style above alluded to, is shewn at 49 & 50. To the outer edge of the so called radial and cubital bones adhere the small flat bones supposed to represent the carpus, 53 (see cut of Vertebrae). Their function is to support the rays of the pectoral POSTERIOR EXTREMITIES. 57 fin, 53% however numerous these may be, with the exception of the first, which articulates directly with the radius or upper bone. In regard to the bones of the hinder extremities which shew themselves externally as the ventral fins, the os innominata, the thigh, the tibia, and the tarsus, are represented in fishes by a single bone, 80, usually of a triangular form, but more or less complicated by processes and projecting plates. Its posterior side affords attachment to the rays of the ventral fins, 81, 82. In eels and others, in which the ventral fins are wanting, this bone is also absent. These posterior members or ventral fins, much more variable in their position than the cor- responding limbs of the mammalia, project some- times in advance of, sometimes beneath, and some- times behind the anterior or pectoral members. The rays of both these pairs of fins are divisible lengthways into halves, and with the exception of the outer ventral ray of the Acanthopterygians (which is spinous, 81), are almost always composed of joints or articulations, becoming, however, more solid at their base. Besides the fins now mentioned, as representing the four external members of birds and quadrupeds, there are other single fins placed vertically, and which serve a fish somewhat in the same manner as a vessel is served by her keel and helm. Of these some, called dorsal, 75, are attached to the back, others, situate beneath, between the tail and ab- domen, are named anal, 75a, while a fine expan- sion which usually terminates the body, is termed F 58 ANGLING. the caudal fin, 71. All these vertical fins vary in different tribes, either in number or dimensions, or the nature of the rays by which they are sup- ported, and which are sometimes spiny, sometimes branched, and composed of numerous articulations. We ought to have observed that even the double fins, or those disposed in pairs, also vary both in size, number, and structure ; and that one or even both pairs are occasionally wanting, as in eels, which have no ventral fins, and mureme, which have neither ventral nor pectoral fins. Indeed, the Apterichti, poor things, have no fins at all. It is from a consideration of the structure, or rather of the texture and consistence of these rays, that the titles of two of the principal primary groups in Ichthyology have been derived. Those named Malacopterygiam have all the rays of the fins articulated, and of a softer structure ; while the Acanthopterygians are characterised by having at least a portion of their rays hard, simple, and spinous. These great divisions apply solely to the osseous or bony fishes. We have already men- tioned that the cartilaginous kinds are distinguished by the title of Chondropterygians, which two lesser groups, in some respects intermediate between these and the preceding, fall under the orders Lopho- brancMi and Plectognathi of Baron Cuvier. The skeleton of the Chondropterygians, such as sharks and rays, is composed of pieces consisting of no fibrous tissue characteristic of bone. The in- terior continues in a cartilaginous state, and the sur- face alone becomes indurated by the accumulation BONES OF THE CHONDROPTERYGIANS. 59 of small calcareous granules, which produce exter- nally a stippled aspect. The form of the cranium is similar to that of other fishes, but nevertheless con- sists of only one enclosure, without sutures. The face is very simple, with only two bones in the palato- temporal arch : — the first descending from the cra- nium at the articulation of the jaws, — the other representing the upper jaw, and bearing teeth. The maxillary and inter-maxillary bones are merely rudi- mentary. The under jaw has also but one bone (the articular) on each side, bearing the teeth ; of the others only a single vestige is discoverable, concealed beneath the lip. The opercular apparatus is wan- ting, but the hyoidean and branchial structure is very conformable with the same parts in osseous fishes. Sharks have, moreover, opposite to the ex- ternal attachment of each branchia, a slender bone, which may be regarded as the genuine vestige of a rib. The branchial system is situate further back than in osseous fishes, and hence, the humeral girdle just described, is also more posterior. The spinal ribs, if they exist, are usually very small, except in the sturgeons. In that genus indeed, the branchial system is in some respects intermediate between the cartilaginous and osseous fishes. Several bones of the head and shoulder are as hard as stone, yet the spine is almost as soft as that of lampreys, 60 ANGLING. SECTION V. The Muscular movements of Fishes. THE vertebral column, composed of numerous articulations, united by cartilages which permit of certain movements, curves with great facility from side to side ; but the vertical motion is much more restricted, chiefly in consequence of the projection of the upper and under spiny processes of the ver- tebrae. The great organ of movement in all fishes is the tail. The muscles, by which it is brought into play, extend in lengthened masses on either side of the vertebral column. The body, being supported chiefly by the swimming bladder (which, however, is absent in several species), is propelled forwards by the rapid flexure of the extremity acting laterally upon the resistance offered by the water. Generally speaking, neither the pectoral nor the ventral fins are of any material use during swift progressive motion ; they rather serve to balance the body, or to aid its gentler movements while in a state of comparative repose. In flying fishes, as they are called, the pectoral fins are of such great length and expansion as to support these creatures in the air ; and the strength of muscular action might probably suffice even for a longer flight, but for the necessity of constant moisture for the purposes of respiration. The drying of the gills in an individual of this class is attended by results analogous to those produced by submersion in the NERVOUS SYSTEM OF FISHES. 61 case of a land animal ; — and a flying fish is ob- liged to descend to respire, in like manner as a swimming quadruped, or disguised mammiferous animal, as we may term a whale, is under the necessity of ascending for the same purpose. The head of fishes exercises but a slight move- ment independent of the rest of the body, but the jaws, opercular bones, branchial arches, and other parts, are very free in their motions. The muscles, like those of other vertebrated animals, are com- posed of fleshy fibres more or less coloured, and of tendonous fibres of a white or silvery aspect. With the exception, however, of certain spinal muscles, which are sometimes of a deep red, the flesh of fishes is much paler than that of quadrupeds, and still more so than that of birds. In several species it is even entirely white. SECTION VI. The Nervous System, and Senses of Fishes. As fishes respire through the intervention of water alone, that is, as they can scarcely avail themselves, in rendering their blood arterial, of anything more than the small portion of oxygen contained in the air which is suspended in the water, their blood is necessarily cold, and the general energy and activity of their senses are by no means so great as those of quadrupeds and birds. 62 ANGLING. Their brain also, though of similar composition, is proportionally much smaller, whether as compared with the total size of the body, with the mass of nerves which proceed from it, or with the cavity of the cranium in which it is contained. In the turbot (Gadus lota) for example, the weight of the brain to that of the spinal marrow is estimated by Carus to be as 8 to 12, and to that of the whole body as 1 to 720 ; and it has been ascertained that the brain of a pike weighed in proportion to the whole body as 1 to 1305. Now, in many small birds, the brain, viewed in relation to the rest of the body, is equal to a twentieth part. In the generality of fishes the spinal cord extends along the whole of the caudal vertebrae, and it is thus that it preponderates over the brain ; but the fish- ing frog, or sea devil (Lophius piscatorius), the moon fish (Lampris guttatus), and a few others form exceptions to this rule, — the spinal marrow dis- appearing before it reaches the eighth vertebra. The brain of fishes by no means fills up the cavity of the cranium ; and the interval between the pia mater, which envelopes the brain itself, and the dura mater, which lines the interior of the skull, is occupied only by a loose cellulosity, frequently impregnated by an oil, or sometimes, as in the sturgeon and thunny, by a more compact fatty matter. It has also been remarked, that this void between the cranium and the brain is much less in young subjects than in adults ; from which it may be inferred that the brain does not increase in an equal proportion with the rest of the body. Cuvier, FISHES SELDOM SPEAK. ()3 in fact, has found its dimensions nearly the same in different individuals — of the same species — of which the general size of one was double that of the other. Although we should be sorry to lower the sub- jects of our present observation in the estimation of society, we think it undeniable that of all ver- tebrated animals fishes exhibit the smallest ap- parent symptoms of refined sensibility. Having no elastic air to act upon, they are necessarily mute, or nearly. so, and all the sweet sensations which the delightful faculty of voice has called into being among the higher tribes, are to them unknown. Their glazed immoveable eyes, their fixed and bony faces, admit of no playful range in their physio- gnomical expression, of no variation connected with emotion. Their ears, surrounded on every side by the bones of the cranium, destitute of external conch, without any internal cochlea, and composed merely of certain sacks and membranous canals, scarcely suffice for the perception of the loudest sounds. Yet will they sink affrighted into the darksome depth of lakes, beneath the banks of rivers, or in oceans blue profound, when " sky lowers and mutters thunder," and with elemental fierceness the sheeted lightning flashes broad and bright above their liquid dwellings. 64 ANGLING. SECTION VII. Organs of Sight in Fishes. EVEN the sense of sight may be supposed to find but feeble exercise in those profounder depths where so many of the inhabitants of ocean dwell, although the largeness of the visual organs, in many species, probably in some measure makes amends for this deficiency of light. But even in those species the eye cannot change its direction ; still less can it alter its focus, so as to accommodate the vision to a varying distance, for the iris neither dilates nor contracts, and no teaching will induce the pupil to do otherwise than remain for ever the same in all degrees of light. No tear moistens the glazed surface, no eyelid clears or protects it, — but then we rejoice to think of the perpetuity of Tweed's crystalline flow, how constant and continuous are its gentle murmurs, how free from those dry specks which men call " dust,1"1 and how gently she laves the never-fevered temples of her (tee) total inhabi- tants. Yet the eyes of fishes, though often in themselves beautiful exceedingly, do still, from their want of variableness, exhibit but a dull and feeble representative of that expressive or^an, so full of life and animation in the higher tribes. The position, direction, and dimensions of the eyes of fishes, vary greatly. In some they have an upward aspect and are closely set together ; in others they are lateral, and occasionally so wide EYES AND EYELIDS. 65 apart as to be even directed slightly downwards. But of all anomalies presented by the position of the eyes of fishes, none is so extraordinary as that of the Pleuronectes (such as turbot, flounders, soles, &c.) in which the visual organs are placed, as it were, one above the other, and both upon the same side of the head. In certain species of eels and Siluri, they are so small as to be scarcely visible ; while in other groups, such as Priacanthus and Pomatomus, they surpass in porportional diameter whatever is known of the same organs in the higher classes. It may indeed be said, in general, that the eye of fishes is large, and that its pupil especi- ally, is broad and open, a character probably con- nected with the necessity of collecting whatever dubious rays of light may penetrate the obscure depth of waters. Fishes have no true eyelids. The skin always passes over the eye, to which it is slightly adherent ; and is for the most part suf- ficiently transparent for the passage of the solar rays. In some species, such as eels, it passes over without the slightest fold or duplication ; while in a few, for example, Gastrobranchus ccecus of Bloch, it continues so opaque as entirely to conceal the eye. In others, as the familiarly known herring and mackerel, it forms an adipose fold both before and behind ; but these folds are fixed, and being unprovided with muscles, have no mobility. Sharks have an eyelid, somewhat more moveable, on the inferior margin of the orbit. The globe of the eye, although furnished as in man with six muscles, is scarcely moveable by voluntary action. One of 66 ANGLING. the most singular kinds of eye, presented by the class of fishes is that of Anableps, which has two cornese, separated by an opaque line, and two pupils pierced in the same iris, so that even a person not a member of the British Association might deem it double ; but there is only one retina, and a single vitreous and crystalline humour. In accordance with the general structure of the eye of fishes, the nearly spherical form of the crystalline humour, the immobility of the pupil, and the difficulty with which it changes the length of its axis, we cannot but believe that the vision of this class is peculiar, if not comparatively imperfect. Images must be but feebly painted on the retina, and their visual perceptions must be indistinct and dull. Yet it is evident that they perceive their prey from a con- siderable distance ; and the angler who knows either how rapidly they seize, or how cautiously they avoid his lure, and with what discrimination they sometimes prefer one colour or kind of artificial fly to another, must be impressed with the belief that the power of vision, at least in certain species, is by no means devoid of clearness and precision. They certainly see people very distinctly on a bank above them, — more so, we think, than from a cor- responding distance when the object is more on their own level, — but they are endowed with no such discrimination of persons as that possessed by birds and beasts, and evidently don't know the difference between a boy and a bishop. We have seen the thing tried. 67 SECTION VIII. Organs of Hearing in Fishes. THE organ of hearing in fishes consists of little more than the labyrinth, and that a much less complicated one than the corresponding part in either quadrupeds or birds. They have no external ear, unless we may bestow that name on a small cavity, sometimes slightly spiral, which we find in skates. It is, however, always covered by the skin, and is not perceptible among the osseous fishes. Those anatomists who find in the opercular bones the four bones of the ear of man, suddenly and prodigiously developed, hazard such a notion merely on the assumption that the bony pieces are the same in number in all crania ; but it must be borne in mind that neither the form, relations, nor functions of these bones, nor their nerves and muscles, support such a comparison. The ear of fishes is in truth much less complete than in quad- rupeds or birds, or even in the majority of reptiles. There is no doubt that they possess the power of hearing, though merely as a general sense of sound, and in all probability without the power of per- ceiving any variety or range of intonation. " The sense of hearing," says Mr. Yarrell, " has by some been denied to fishes, — perhaps because they exhibit no external sign of ears : the internal structure, however, may be most successfully demonstrated in the various species of skate, in which the firmer 68 ANGLING. parts of the head being formed of soft and yielding cartilage, the necessary divisions may be effected with great ease. The Chinese, who breed large quantities of the well-known gold-fish, call them with a whistle to receive their food. Sir Joseph Banks used to collect his fish by sounding a bell, and Carew the historian of Cornwall, brought his grey mullet together to be fed by making a noise with two sticks."* It appears to us, however, that the simple fact of fishes being as a class almost, if not entirely mute, is of itself a logical ground for believing that their perceptions of sound are ex- tremely dull. SECTION IX. Organs of Smell in Fishes. A FEW lines may now be devoted to a considera- tion of the sense of smell. The nostrils of fishes are not so placed as to be traversed either by air or water, in connexion with the act of respiration. They consist merely of two openings, situate near the extremity of the muzzle, and lined by the pitui- tary membrane, which is raised in extremely regu- lar folds. Their shape is in some oblong, in others round or oval. They are placed either at the end of the muzzle, or on its sides ; sometimes on its * BRITISH FISHES, Introduction, p. xvi. SENSE OF SMELL IN FISHES. 69 superior face, and even occasionally, as in skates and sharks, on its under surface, near the angle of the mouth. In the lamprey, they are approxi- mate on the upper part of the head,- — opening by one common orifice. In the great majority of fishes, perhaps in all the osseous kinds, each nostril opens by two orifices, the one posterior to the other, and in some cases at a considerable distance. These are what are called double nostrils — an inaccurate term, in as far as each pair of holes leads only to a single cavity. The margins of the anterior orifice are often tubular, as in the eel ; and sometimes a single side of the tubular margin is prolonged into a tentacular appendage, as in several Siluri. In the genus Lophius, the nostrils are borne upon a little pedicle, so as somewhat to resemble certain fungi. It does not appear that the envelope of the nostrils, at least in the osseous fishes, possesses mobility, or that the orifices are furnished with muscles, by means of which they can be open- ed and shut. It is certain, however, that fishes possess the faculty of perceiving odours ; that vari- ous scents attract or repel them ; and there is no reason to doubt that the seat of that perception lies in the nostrils. It may also be reasonably conjec- tured that its strength depends mainly on the de- gree of development produced by the number and extent of the interior folds. Mr. Yarrell presumes the sense of smell to be acute, from the selection fishes make while searching for their food, and the advantage (not much that we know of) gained by anglers from the use of scented oils. " A pike," 70 ANGLING. he observes, " has been seen to approach and after- wards turn away from a stale gudgeon, when at the distance of a foot from his nose, as if perfectly aware, at that distance, of the real condition of the intended prey." It is, at the same time, as clear as water, that if he did not smell the gudgeon, he at least saw it ; and there may be just as much dif- ference in a pikers eye between a fresh fish and one long kept, as in the eye of man between a young woman and an old one — neither act of discrimina- tion in any way depending on the sense of smell. Mr. Couch, an excellent and well-known ichthyo- logical observer, is said to have perceived in a large fifteen-spined stickle-back, which he kept in a glass vessel, that the opening and closing of the nostrils were simultaneous with the action of the gill-covers, and he felt convinced from his observations, that the fluid was received and rejected for the purpose of sensation. SECTION X. Organs of Taste in Fishes. IN regard to the sense of taste, so essential to the happiness both of man and beast, it is obvious that as fishes, with few exceptions, swallow their food rapidly and with little mastication, their per- ception of that faculty must be by no means either acute or deliberate. The same inference may be SENSES OF TASTE AND TOUCH. 71 drawn from the fact of their tongue being almost immoveable, often entirely osseous, not seldom beset with teeth or dental plates, and receiving very slender nerves, and these but few in number. Even those species, of which the jaws are so armed as to enable them to cut and bruise their aliments, cannot long retain the latter in their mouths, on account of the position and peculiar play of the respiratory organs. No salivary glands discharge their moisture on the organs of taste. The tongue itself is actually wanting in many species ; and even when it exists in its most distinct and ap- parently fleshy state, it consists merely of a liga- mentous or cellular substance, applied on front of the lingual bone, and is never furnished with muscles capable of producing any movement of ex- tension or retraction, as in quadrupeds. We have, however, frequently seen fishes seize on stale worms and other unsavoury morsels, and almost instan- taneously thereafter spout them from their mouths with violence to the distance of many inches, — thereby, we think, exhibiting some sharpness in the sense of taste, and no small bluntness in that of smell. SECTION. XL Organs of Touch in Fishes. NEITHER can fishes be said to be highly favoured in respect to those organs on which the accurate perception of the sense of touch depends. The fa- 72 ANGLING. culty is no doubt greatly deadened over the general surface, by the coating of scales, and in the more special members, by the inflexibility of the rays. It is chiefly confined to the lips, and even those parts in many species are themselves as hard and insensible as bone. Certain soft and delicate ap- pendages, called barbies, possessed by many species, such as the cod and loach, are supposed to enjoy a more delicate perception of the sense of touch. The gurnards are provided with delicate detached rays at the root of the pectoral fins, which may be com- pared to fingers — probably serving a somewhat similar purpose, and making amends for their bony lips. Mr. Yarrell regards it as a rule without ex- ception, that all fishes furnished with barbies or cirri about the mouth, obtain their food near the ground ; and there seems indeed to be a beautiful accordance between the functions of these feelers, as they have been called, and that deficiency of light which must ever prevail beneath a heaving mass of " waters dark and deep.* The scales of fishes, which thus at once protect and deaden their feelings, are in the majority imbricated, that is, placed partially over each other, after the manner of slates or tiles. They are, however, neither equally distributed, nor of the same form or con- sistence over the general surface of the body. The head is frequently destitute of scales, and those which form what is called the lateral line of the body, are distinguished from the others by one or more small tubular perforations. All these scales are attached to the skin by their anterior edge, and SOME GENERAL INFERENCES. 73 it is also by means of the dermis that the peculiar matter, so remarkable for its silvery metallic lustre, and which bestows such brilliancy on many fishes, is secreted beneath the scales. It is this substance that is used in the formation of artificial pearls. SECTION XII. Things to be inferred from the preceding premises. WE think it results from the foregoing slight details (into which we cannot here enter more minutely), that the external senses of fishes con- vey to them less lively and distinct impressions than do those of other verteb rated beings. By whatever scenes in nature they are surrounded, their perceptions, beyond a narrow range, are in- distinct and dull. Their sexual emotions, cold as their blood, indicate only individual wants. They bear little or no attachment to each other, and even when assembled together in multitudinous millions (as subjects of the herring board, — T. D. L., Sec.), they exhibit only a congregated mass of selfish single fishes, each striving to push his own particular for- tune along the wooded shores of deep Loch Fyne (or other rich marine pasture), without even crying " God bless the Duke," as all are now alike in duty and affection bound. Few species pair or enjoy any connubial gratification, and neither sex seems to recognise its offspring. Lest, however, we should 74 ANGLING. be thought to malign the morals of the objects of our favourite sport, we shall notice a few exceptions to what we undoubtedly regard as the general rule, although we have devoted but little of our leisure to what a French clergyman, a friend of ours, was wont to call " the loaves of fishes." Mr. Yarrell is of opinion that considerable at- tachment is frequently exhibited between the pa- rents. Mr. Jesse records that he once caught a female pike during the spawning season, and that nothing could drive the male away from the spot at which she had disappeared. He (the pike, not Mr. Jesse) even followed her to the very edge of the water, " with long reluctant amorous delay." In other cases, this attachment is said not to be con- fined to the season of spawning ; for a person who had kept two small fishes together in a glass vessel, having given one of them away, the other refused to eat, and showed obvious symptoms of an un- happy anxiety till his companion was restored. This, however, we would remark, was an experi- ment under constrained or artificial circumstances, and is therefore scarcely conclusive, although it shows that the germ of some affection may exist in fishes. Solitude, or almost total seclusion from one^s kind, produces indeed a very dissimilar effect in different constitutions. It is asserted that a sentimental sailor actually fell in love with an old maid through his prison bars ; while, on the other hand, it is known that keepers of light-houses almost always hate each other. However this may be, some few fishes exhibit an attachment to their FISHES NOT BIRDS. 75 young, and even watch over and defend their ova. Pennant informs us, that the river bull-head (Coitus gobio) deposits its spawn in a hole in the gravel, and quits it with reluctance ; and Mr. Yar- rell was told by an accurate observer, that the species in question " evinces a sort of parental affection for its ova, as a bird for its nest, return- ing quickly to the spot, and being unwilling to quit it when disturbed." He alludes also to the belief, that the male of the lump-sucker (Cyclopterus lumpus) keeps watch over the ova — guarding them from every ordinary foe with the utmost courage, and if driven from the spot by man, continually " looking back," (does he twist his neck ?) and re- turning ere long to his loved deposit.* But the prevailing attributes and domestic economy of fishes may be described as exactly the reverse of those of birds. These gay and airy crea- tures possess the power of surveying distinctly, at a glance, an immeasurable extent of horizon ; their acute perception of sound appreciates all intona- tions, and their glad voices are exquisitely skilled in their production. Though their bills are hard, and their bodies closely covered by down and feathers, they are by no means deficient in the sense of touch. They enjoy all the delights of conjugal and parental affection, and perform their incumbent duties with devotedness and courage. They cherish and defend their offspring, and will sometimes even die in that defence ; and of all the * BRITISH FISHES, vol. i. Introduction, xxiv. 76 ANGLING. wonderful labours of instinctive art, none is so beautiful as the formation of their mossy dwellings. With what deep and continuous affection does the female brood over her cherished treasures ! — how unwearied is the gallant male in his tender assi- duities, and with what melodious love does he out- pour that rich and varied song by which he seeks to soothe her sedentary task ! " Over his own sweet voice the stock-dove broods !" But close at hand, on that umbrageous bough, sits the fond partner of his joys and sorrows, so that it is in no spirit of selfish solitary musing that he ever murmurs by woodland stream or shadow- haunted brook, " a music sweeter than their own." The slender winged and glossy plumaged swallow, which skims the verdure of the new-mown meadow, or dimples the surface of the breezeless lake, — the ponderous but giant pinioned eagle, winging his way from distant isles, o'er waters glittering with redundant life, — the proud far-sighted falcon, which launching from some hoar cliff, or lightening- scathed peak, " Doth dally with the wind, and scorn the sun," — the wild and fearful lapwing, with graceful crest and dark dilated eye, are each and all enslaved for many a long enduring season by this love of off- spring, and toil in its support from dewy morn- ing until latest eve. But it is far otherwise with our voiceless dwellers /n the deep, who exhibit but few attachments, are THE BEAUTY OF FISHES. 77 conversant with no interchanging language, and cherish no warm affections. Constructing no dwel- ling, they merely shelter themselves from danger among the cavernous rocks of the ocean, in the silent depths of lakes, or beneath the murky shade of the overhanging banks of rivers ; and the cravings of hunger seem alone to exercise a frequenter influential action over their monotonous movements . We must not, however, conceive that the life of fishes is not one of enjoyment, for we know that the Great Creator " careth for all his creatures ;" and it ought perhaps rather to be said that we cannot appreciate the nature of their feelings, than that they are in any way fore-doomed to a negation of pleasure. Assuredly, however, the hand of nature has been most prodigal in bestowing on their external aspect every variety of adornment. Their special forms are infinite, their proportions often most elegant, their colours lively and diversified — and nothing seems wanting, either in their shape or structure, to excite the unfeigned admiration of mankind. Indeed, it almost appears as if this prodigality of beauty was intended solely for such an end. The brightness of metallic splendour — the sparkling brilliancy of precious gems — 'the milder effulgence of the hues of flowers, all combine to signalise fishes as among the most beautiful objects of creation. When newly withdrawn from their native element, or still gliding submerged amid its liquid coolness, their colours fixed or iridescent, are seen mingling in spots, or bands, or broader flashes, — always ele- gant and symmetrical, sometimes richly contrasted, 78 ANGLING. sometimes gradually softened into each other, and in all cases harmonising with a chaste fulness of effect, which Titian and Eubens might envy, but could never equal. For what reason, then, it has been asked, has all this adornment been so lavishly bestowed on creatures which can scarcely perceive each other amid the dim perpetual twilight of the deep ? Shakspeare has already said, that there are " more things in heaven and earth, than are dreanVt of in our philosophy ;" and we fear it is no answer to the foregoing question to add, that the same observation applies with even greater truth to the " waters beneath the earth" SECTION XIII. The Circulating System of Fishes. IN common with warm-blooded animals, fishes are provided with a complete circulation for the body, and with another equally complete for the organs of respiration, and with a particular abdo- minal circulation, terminating at the liver by means of the vena porta ; but their peculiar character, so far as regards the sanguiferous system, consists in this, that the branchial circulation alone is pro- vided at its base with a muscular apparatus or heart, corresponding to the right auricle and ven- tricle of the higher classes, while nothing of the kind exists at the base of the circulating system of BREATHING A VEIN. 79 the body ; in other words, the left auricle and ven- tricle are entirely wanting — the branchial veins changing into arteries without any muscular en- velope. The muscular apparatus of their circula- tion is composed of the auricle, the ventricle, and the bulb of the pulmonary artery, and the auricle itself is preceded by a large sinus, in which all the veins of the body terminate, — a structure which gives rise to four cavities separated by restrictions, into which the blood must flow in its progress from the body to the gills or branchiae. SECTION XIV. The Respiration of Fishes. IT is by an almost infinite subdivision of the vessels over the surface of these branchiae, that the blood of fishes becomes subjected to the influence of an ambient fluid. This fluid is of course water, which is made to flow incessantly between the leaves of the branchiae, by the movement of the jaws, and of the opercular and hyoidean apparatus. This mode of respiration is equally necessary to fishes as the direct respiration of air is to other animals ; but the action of water on the blood is much more feeble than that of air. If the portion of air which is held in solution, or mingled with the water, be expelled by ebullition, fishes will not live, and many species are obliged to rise frequently 80 ANGLING. to the surface, for the purpose of breathing atmo- spheric air. It is easy to suffocate a fish by keep- ing it for a length of time beneath the surface, en- closed in a gauze net. The gills of fishes, it has been observed, possess complex powers, and are capable of receiving the influence of oxygen, not only from that portion of atmospheric air which is mingled with the water, but also directly from the atmosphere itself. The absorption of oxygen, how- ever, in either way, is very .small in these aquatics ; for it has been calculated that a human being con- sumes fifty thousand times more than is required by a tench. When fishes are deprived of water, they perish not so much for want of oxygen, as because their branchiae become dry, and their blood no longer circulates with freedom. Hence the species of which the branchial orifice is small, as the eel, or those which possess receptacles for moisture, like the so called climbing perch of M. Daldorf, (Anabas scandens*), long survive expo- sure ; while such as have their gills greatly cleft and so exposed, expire almost instantly when with- drawn from their moist abode, — a philosophical fact which has no doubt given rise to the familiar ex- pression of " dead as a herring." Although fishes as a class, are properly regarded as cold-blooded animals, yet Dr. John Davy has shewn that the temperature of certain species allied * A curious eastern fish called in the Tamoul language, Paneiri, or the tree climber, and alleged to ascend the trunks of trees by means of the spiny processes of the gill-covers. See Linn. Trans. in, 62. ENDURANCE OF HEAT AND COLD. 81 to the mackerel, which, being surface swimmers, have a good respiration, was higher than usually supposed. Thus the bonito was found to possess a temperature of 90 degrees, Fahr., when the sur- rounding medium was 80° 5', and may therefore be regarded as an exception to the supposed general rule. Physiologists have shewn that the quantity of respiration is inversely as the degree of muscu- lar irritability. Mr. Yarrell regards it as a law, that those fishes which swim near the surface of the water, have a high standard of respiration, a low degree of muscular irritability, great necessity for oxygen, die almost immediately when removed from the water, and have flesh prone to rapid decompo- sition— mackerel, salmon, trout, and herring, being examples of this rule ; while, on the contrary, such as live near the bottom of the water, have a low standard of respiration, a high degree of muscular irritability, less necessity for oxygen, a more en- during power of life in open air, and flesh which keeps fresh for several days. Of this second rule, carp, tench, eels, and the various kinds of skate and flat-fish, may be mentioned as examples. Whatever may be the physical temperature of fishes, there is nothing in their history more re- markable than their power of enduring the extremes of heat and cold. The breeding powers of that brilliant species of Chinese carp, commonly called the gold-fish, are greatly accelerated by water kept at a constant temperature of 80 Fahr. ; yet Mr. Hoste, a naturalist of Vienna, has seen that species recover freely after being frozen up in ice. Fishes 82 ANGLING. exist naturally in various baths and thermal springs, of which the temperature ranges from 113 to 120 degrees ; and Humboldt and Bonpland were wit- ness in South America to fishes being thrown up alive, and apparently in good health, from the bot- tom of a volcano, along with water and heated vapour, which raised the thermometer to 210°, that is, to within two degrees of the boiling point. Contrast this with Dr. Richardson's account of the species of carp common in the fur countries of North America. SECTION XV. The Swimming Bladder of Fishes. ONE of the most peculiar and characteristic organs of the finny tribe is the swimming bladder, com- monly so called. This is a fine pellucid often silvery-coated viscus, of size and shape extremely variable in the different kinds, and in many species altogether wanting. In several genera, it has no opening or canal of communication, and the air which it contains must therefore be the result of secretion. It is composed of an extremely fine in- ternal tunic, and of another of a thicker texture, and peculiar fibrous structure, remarkable for pro- ducing the finest kind of isinglass. It is enclosed within the general coating with which the perito- neum invests the other viscera. It is sometimes THE SWIMMING BLADDER. 83 simple, as in perch, sometimes furnished with more or less numerous appendages, as in some of the haddock tribe, or branched, as in certain Science. Occasionally we find it divided, as it were, into two parts by a restriction, as in the genus Cyprinus, several of the Salmonidse, and others. It is chiefly among the abdominal fishes that we find it com- municating by a tube or tunnel with the intestinal canal, and either directly with the gullet, as in Cyprmus, or with the base of the stomach, as in the herring. That of the sturgeon opens into the former portion by means of a conspicuous orifice. The contents of the swimming bladder are usually found to be azote, mingled with some fractional parts of oxygen or carbonic acid. There is pro- bably a want of uniformity in its composition, which is of itself a proof that the air is secreted rather than drawn in from the atmosphere in the ordinary way. The gas in the carp was found by Fourcroy to be nearly pure nitrogen, while other chemists have found it composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid — the nitrogen in greater, the oxygen in smaller proportion, than in atmospheric air. Some physiologists seem to have regarded the swimming bladder as a true lung, which both ad- mitted and retained the external air ; but as we have said, the connecting air-duct is in numerous species entirely wanting, while in many others which remain constantly at prodigious depths, the quantity of oxygen in the swimming bladder is greater than in those the abode of which is near the surface. Indeed, the oxygen is said to increase 84? ANGLING. in quantity in proportion to the depth at which the species dwells. Carus considers it probable that the vessel in question performs a part analogous to that of the expiratory functions of the lungs in the higher classes, by not only separating excrementi- tious azote, and superabundant oxygen, from the blood, but even discharging those elements in such species as have this particular viscus provided with an air-duct. The more obvious uses, however, of this organ, seem to be to maintain the fish in equilibrium, and to lighten or increase the relative weight, so as to cause a sinking or ascension in proportion as the bladder is compressed or expanded. This is pro- bably effected by the contraction or dilatation of the ribs, at least we often see fishes rise or descend in the water without a visible effort of any kind. At all events, it is certain that when the air-blad- der bursts, the fish remains at the bottom, usually turning up its belly, or exhibiting other irregulari- ties in its attempts at locomotion. Another curious effect is observable in regard to fishes which have been suddenly brought from a great depth by means of a long fishing line, and which having no time either to compress or partially empty the organ in question, the air which it contains being no longer pressed by the heavy weight of water, either ex- pands so as to burst the bladder, or by its dilata- tion forces the stomach and oesophagus into the fish's mouth. When it is pierced artificially, the fish almost immediately turns upon its back, and sinks to the bottom. Though of the highest im- FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF FISHES. 85 portance in the economy of such species as possess it (and these are by far the greater number), yet this swimming bladder is not indispensable to the class of fishes, of which in truth about a fourth part are naturally destitute of it. In the Pleuronectidw or flat-fish, it is entirely wanting, and these species generally remain at the bottom. The Lamprey is also in a similar predicament, and dwells in the mud. It is however difficult to determine for what reason this organ should have been denied to so many fishes, not only of the more indolent kinds, like the majority of those just referred to, which dwell composedly at the bottom of the water, but to many others which yield to none of their class in the ease and velocity of their movements. Its presence or absence does not even accord with the other conditions of organisation ; for while it is wanting in one kind of mackerel, it occurs in another, of which the habits are analogous, if not the same. SECTION XVI. The general position and relationships of Fishes, consi- dered as a great class in the Animal Kingdom. IT results not less from the preceding general exposition of structure, than from all observation of special organisation, that fishes form a class of creatures distinct from every other, and destined 86 ANGLING. by the totality of their conformation, to live, move, and have their being in the waters. The liquid element forms their prope p^ace in the creation : there they had their origin — there they must re- main till the final consummation of all things ; and it is either through slight and superficial approxi- mations, or by vain metaphysical speculation, that any modern writer could regard them as proceeding from an exalted or more perfect development of the molluscous tribes. Equally unfounded is, of course, that other opinion, which in the spirit of the same philosophy looks upon fishes as forming an elementary stage, or foetal condition of the other vertebrated classes. It is true that the mollusca, in common with fishes, respire by means of branchiae ; they equally possess a nervous and circulating sys- tem, an intestinal canal, and a liver; " and no one," says Cuvier, with a justifiable pride, " knows these things better than I, who first made known, with any degree of completeness, the anatomy and zoological relations of the molluscous tribes."* As animal life, continues that great observer, has received but a limited number of organs, it neces- sarily happens that some of these organs are com- mon to several classes. But where, in other re- spects, is the resemblance ? Even such organs as are common alike to mollusca, and fishes can be brought into no relation with those connections which the latter exhibit with the other vertebrated classes, nor is it possible to shew the passage by * HIST. NAT. DBS POISSONS, i. 544. FISHES ARE NOTHING ELSE THAN FISHES. 87 which nature conducts us from one to the other. We cannot here state the conclusive reasoning of the great French naturalist regarding the distinc- tion of the groups in question. We shall merely state his conclusion to be, that if there is a resem- blance between the organs of fishes and those of the other great groups of the animal kingdom, it is only in so far as the functions of such organs are similar; that if we assert either that fishes are mollusca, of an ameliorated or higher grade, or that they repre- sent a commencing or foetal state of reptiles, we can do so only in an abstract or metaphysical accepta- tion, and that even with such restriction, we by no means convey an accurate notion of their organic structure ; that we cannot regard them either as links of an imaginary chain of successive forms (of which none could serve as the germ of another, since none is capable of a solitary or isolated exist- ence), or of that other chain, not less fanciful, of simultaneous and transitionary forms, which has no reality but in the fond imagination of certain naturalists, more poetical than observant. They pertain in truth, and solely, to the actual chain of co-existent beings — of beings necessary to each other, and which by their mutual action maintain the resplendent order and harmony of created things. 88 ANGLING. SECTION XVTT. The Geographical distribution of Fishes. WE shall now conclude our general exposition of the subject, by a brief allusion to one of its branches, of the highest interest to the philosophi- cal enquirer. Our knowledge of the laws which regulate the distribution of fishes is meagre in the extreme ; in other words, the facts concerning their characteristic localities are few, and have never been generalised. From the immeasurable extent and continuous nature of the fluid which they inhabit, they are supplied by nature with greater facilities of dispersion than most other animals ; and the greater equality of the temperature of water, com- pared with that of earth or air, admits in several instances of the same species inhabiting a vast ex- tent of country. Those races, especially, which travelling together in shoals, which " bank the mid- sea," and speedily consume the natural food which each particular spot affords them, are obliged like the pastoral tribes of old, or the woodland hunters of America, to remove from place to place in search of additional supplies ; and so the species acquires a more widely extended distribution. It is thus that the cod and herring are spread over a vast extent of the northern ocean, and in undiminished numbers, notwithstanding the war of extermination which man and other voracious animals appear to wage against them. LOCALITIES OF FISHES. 89 But if the natural means by which the species inhabiting: the continuous waters of the ocean have O spread themselves from clime to clime, be to a certain extent within the range of our comprehen- sion, it is otherwise with those peculiar to rivers, and the waters of secluded lakes. How these have contrived to migrate from one region to another, and to people with identical species the depths of far removed and solitary waters, separated from each other by chains of lofty mountains, or wide extended wastes of desert sand, is a problem, which in the present state of our knowledge we seek in vain to solve. How came the vendace of Loch- maben into certain Lochs in Dumfries-shire, and into no others in England, Scotland, Wales, or the emerald Isle 2 Why, or from whence, did Salmo ferox descend into numerous Lochs in Scotland, and continue absent from many others, equally adapted (as it seems) to their reception, preserva- tion, and increase? It may indeed happen that spawn or ova are carried by water-fowl from one great central reservoir to another, and thus the rivers of a half a continent may be put in possession of species unknown before ; — but this supposition scarcely suffices to account for the general diffusion of certain species, and still less for the narrow restriction of others, equally subjected to the chances of that aerial flight. We now proceed to a detailed, though not greatly extended sketch of the various species of fishes which fall within the range of angling art, — in- 90 ANGLING. eluding their natural habits, their external aspect, and their mode of capture. We regard our subject as one of deep and sustaining interest in a philoso- phical point of view, and of the highest and most immediate importance when considered in relation to the economical advantages derivable by the human race. We shall endeavour to combine with our immediate object, such miscellaneous informa- tion as we can collect from genuine sources, with a view to render this little essay more palatable to the general reader ; and if any great deficiency in that department is observable, we hope it may in some measure be attributed to the very nature of this branch of natural history, the subjects of which, inhabiting another element from ourselves, have thus their on-goings too often veiled from mortal sight by a " world of waters" — which no eye can pierce, but the eye of HIM who called the light out of darkness, and who created the " heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.""* How much nobler and more soul sustaining are these combined pursuits of the angler and naturalist, than such as many worldly minded men do follow after, who either fretting with fevered care * In our brief exposition of the structure and physiology of fishes, we have mainly followed the masterly introduction prefixed 'by Baron Cuvier to his (and M. Valencienne's) great work, — the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, now amounting to 14 vols. We have also availed ourselves occasionally of Mr. Yarrell's accurate and elegant work on British Fishes, and have moreover sought to refresh ourselves by turning in time of need to our own article, " Ichthyology," in Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xii. p. 151, — to say nothing of the Essay on " Angling" in that work, which, as already mentioned on our fly leaf, forms the basis or but-end of the present publication. PICTURE OF THE PAST. 91 hoarded heaps, know not that " Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith," — or wasting themselves and substance in riot and intemperance, forget how far sweeter is " a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred with the same." Let them that list these pleasures then pursue, And on their foolish fancies feed their fill ; So I the fields and meadows green may view, And by the rivers fresh may walke at wille, Among the dazies and the violets blue, Red hyacinth and yellow daffodil, Purple narcissus like the morning rayes, Pale ganderglas, and azore culverkayes. I count it better pleasure to behold The goodly compasse of the lofty skie ; And in the midst thereof, like burning gold, The flaming chariot of the world's great eye ; The wat'ry clouds that in the ayre uprol'd With sundry kinds of painted colours flie ; And faire Aurora lifting up her head, All blushing rise from old Tithonus' bed. The hills and mountains raised from the plains, The plains extended levell with the ground, The ground divided into sundry vains, The vains enclos'd with running rivers round, The rivers making way thro' nature's chains, With headlong course into the sea profound ; The surging sea beneath the vallies low, The vallies sweet, and lakes that gently flow. Oh ! bright Winander, how thy far-stretching beauty lies before me, thy head o^er-canopied by loftiest mountains (gaze in that magic mirror, be- hold the vaulted sky, the breathless woods, the grey gigantic battlements of heaven), thine islands floating in deep cserulean calm like things entranced, .92 ANGLING. thy beaming spendour, as lessening from sight mid sweet umbrageous shores, thou seek^st thine ocean of eternity ! Why in this murky night of dark December dost thou revisit thus my soul's recesses ? Why in the chambers of mine imagery art thou with all thy pomp of summer glory brought up uncalled before me ? The lustre now grows dim, and fades away, but not on this green earth, on grassy bank or high uplifted mountain, can such effulgent gleams as those surround me. For why ? Old man, the summer of thy youth made that por- tentous blaze. Father of light and life, " Not without hope we suffer and we mourn." 93 CHAPTER III. OF THE ANGLERS FISHES IN PARTICULAR THEIR ASPECT, HABITS, AND MODES OF CAPTURE. THE PERCH.* THIS gregarious fish is angled for with a worm or minnow. It is a bold biter during the warm months of the year, though very abstemious in the winter season. When a shoal is met with, great sport is frequently obtained. A small cork float is used, and the bait is hung at various depths, ac- cording to circumstances, a knowledge of which can * Perca fluviatilis. Linn. 94 ANGLING. only be obtained by practice. In angling near the bottom, the bait should be frequently raised nearly to the surface, and then allowed gently to sink again. When the weather is cool and cloudy, with a ruffling breeze from the south, perch will bite during the whole day. The best hours towards the end of spring are from seven to eleven in the morning, and from two to six in the afternoon. In warm and bright summer weather, excellent times are from sunrise till six or seven in the morning, and from six in the evening till sunset. The Perch is one of the most beautiful of the fresh water fishes of Europe, but is too familiarly known to need description. It inhabits both lakes and rivers, but shuns salt water. Pallas, however, is said to have stated in his Zoographia Russo-Asia- tica (a work still unpublished), that about spawning time both Pike and Perch are found in a gulf of the Caspian Sea, about thirty verstes from the mouth of the Terek. The female deposits her eggs, united together by a viscid matter, in lengthened strings, — a peculiarity noticed by Aris- totle. Spawning takes place in April and May, and the number of eggs sometimes amounts to near a million. The Perch occurs all over Europe, and in most of the northern districts of Asia. It is easily tamed, and if kept moist will live for a long time out of water. It sometimes attains to a great size, but the majority are smallish fishes. Pen- nant alludes to one said to have been taken in the Serpentine River, Hyde Park, which weighed nine pounds. But even one half of that weight would THE RUFFE, OB POPE. 95 be any where regarded as extraordinary, and a Perch of a pound is looked upon as a fine fish. The flesh of this species as an article of food is whole- some, though neither rich nor high flavoured. The months of April, May, and June, are those during which it is least esteemed. The Basse, or Sea Perch (Perca labrax, Linn. Labrax lupus, Cuv. and Val.), is a fish of a chaste and pleasing aspect, though destitute of the strongly contrasted colouring of the preceding, from which it is also distinguished by an abundance of small teeth upon the tongue. It is abundant in the Mediterranean, and occurs occasionally along the British shores. We have seen it in the Edinburgh o Market. It is a very voracious fish, remarkable for the size of its stomach, and was known to the ancients by the appropriate name of lupus. It takes a bait freely (onisci, broken shell-fish, etc.) when angled for during flood-tide, with strong tackle, from projecting rock or pier. The ordinary size ranges from 12 to 18 inches, although Wil- loughby has stated that it sometimes attains the weight of 15 pounds. Its flesh is excellent. THE RUFFE, OR POPE.* This fresh water fish bears a considerable resem- blance to the Perch, both in form and habits. It is much esteemed for the delicacy of its flesh, but is unfortunately unknown in Scotland. Mr. Yarrell informs us that it is common to almost all * Perca cernua, Linn. — Accrina vulgaris, Cuv. and Val. ANGLING. the canals and rivers of England, particularly the Thames, the Isis, and the Cam. Though said to be unknown in Spain, Italy, and Greece, it is rather extensively distributed over the colder portions of Europe, preferring slow shaded streams, with a gravelly bottom. It is angled for with a small red worm, and being gregarious, six or eight dozen may sometimes be taken at a single stand. It is a good article for the table, although its dimensions, seldom exceeding six or seven inches, render re- quisite a large supply. It deposits its ova during the month of April, around the roots of flags and rushes. THE RIVER BULL-HEAD, OR MILLER1 S THUMB.* This is a small dark-coloured fish, four or five inches in length, familiarly known in Britain, and frequent in most of the streams of Europe and the North of Asia. It usually lies concealed beneath stones, from whence it darts with great rapidity upon its prey, and the angler lures it to destruction by a small red worm, or portion of the same. Those who are regardless of moisture, or destitute of shoes and stockings, catch it with their hands. This fish is said to be extremely prolific, and the female, when with spawn, becomes so greatly distended, that her ovaries protrude like mammae. The flesh, like that of the Salmon, has a reddish hue when boiled, and affords a good wholesome food, much sought after by the mountain tribes of many coun- * Coitus gobio, Linn., Cuv. THE MILLER'S THUMB. 97 tries ; yet Pallas assures us that in Eussia no one will taste it, although the common people hang it around their necks as an amulet, under the impres- sion that it acts as a preservative against the at- tacks of tertian fever. Does the reader know why this fish is called the Miller's Thumb, or for what reason a miller is supposed to have a thumb different from that of other men? The following is Mr. YarrelPs ex- planation of these two mysteries. The head of the creature in question (we mean of the fish), is smooth, broad, and rounded, and exactly resembles the form of a human miller's thumb, as that form is superinduced by a peculiar and constant action of the muscles in the exercise of a particular and most important part of his vocation, i. e. the as- certaining, by actual contact, the character and qualities of the meal. In this habitual act the thumb is the guage of the value of the produce, and hence has arisen the phrase of " worth a miller's thumb," as well as that other adage, " an honest miller has a golden thumb," — in reference to the amount of profit likely to reward his conscientious labour. By the frequency of this mechanical pro- cess, a characteristic form is produced, which, if it does not altogether resemble the head of the fish in question, has at least led to the latter being likened to the former, and named accordingly. This is the only fresh water species of the genus, but several kinds of Coitus occur along our sea shores, and afford occasional amusement to the young angler. Their forms and general aspect are 98 ANGLING. very extraordinary, and, we doubt not, have been of frequent use in rivetting the early attention of the student of nature. We shall briefly notice these marine species. The Short-spined Cottus, Sea Scorpion, or Fa- ther-Lasher (C. scorpius, Bloch), is common around our coasts, and occurs in the Firth of Forth as high up as Kincardine. It feeds on shrimps or other Crustacea, and small fishes, and is frequently found in rocky pools left shallow by the recession of the tide. Its usual length is from half a foot to nine inches, a few being found a foot long. It is eaten by people who know (and can obtain) no better, but is by no means a delicate morsel. The Long-spined Cottus, or Lucky Proach of Scotland, also frequently named the Father-Lasher (Cottus bubalis of Cuv. and Val.), is common along the British shores, where it seldom attains to a greater length than eight or ten inches. It exhi- bits rather a formidable aspect when handled, owing to its peculiar habit of projecting its spiny processes, and inflating the sides of the head so as greatly to distend the gill covers. The apertures to the gills are very large, and yet these fishes live for a length of time out of water, — the general rule being sup- posed to be, that the power of withstanding removal from moisture depends on the smallness of such apertures. Mr. Yarrell, however, has brought for- ward several cases which militate against this rule ; for example, the Carp, Tench, Barbel, Perch, and the generality of flat fishes, have large gill aper- tures, although they notoriously live long out of THE LUCKY PROACH. 99 water, while, on the other hand, the common loach, and several other well known species, die quickly when removed from their native element, although their gills are scarcely at all exposed, the apertures being very small. M. Fleurens, a French physio- logist, has assigned another reason than desiccation for the death of a fish out of water. " If its motions be attentively watched, it will be seen, that although the mouth be opened and shut continually, and the gill-cover raised alternately, the arches supporting the branchiae, or gills, are not separated, nor are the branchial filaments expanded, — all remain in a state of colapse ; the intervention of a fluid is abso- lutely necessary to effect their separation and ex- tension, without it these delicate fibres adhere to- gether in a mass, and cannot in that state receive the vivifying influence of oxygen ; the situation of the fish is similar to that of an air-breathing animal enclosed in a vacuum, and death by suffocation is the consequence. To this may be added, that the duration of life in each species, when out of water, is in an inverse ratio to the necessity of oxygen." * The Lucky Proach, though disesteemed in Bri- tain as an article of consumption, forms a favourite diet in Greenland, where it often constitutes the principal food of the natives, the soup made from it being both pleasant and nutritious. We come now to the genus Gasterostem, of which the species familiarly known under the name of Stickle-backs (Scotice, Benticles), are small fishes, * BRITISH FISHES, i. 67. 100 ANGLING. very frequent in all the fresh waters of Europe. Gesner, indeed, alleged that they did not occur in Switzerland, but the contrary has long been ascertained. Our most common species is G. acideatus, Penn. (G. leiurus, Cuv. Yar.) distin- guished from several of its congeners by the late- ral plates not extending beyond the second dorsal spine, the remainder of the side being smooth and soft. There are six or seven British species (some of them barely distinguishable from each other), all of which occur in Scotland. They are angled for by young people with a small red worm, and when taken uninjured, are easily tamed. Their usual colours are green above, and of a silvery hue below, but towards the breeding season the males especially assume upon the under parts a brilliant scarlet. They are very voracious for their size, and commit great damage in fish ponds by de- vouring the unconscious spawn, or the defenceless fry. G. pungitivus, commonly called the smaller or ten-spined stickle-back, is the least of all our fresh water fishes. In common, however, with a more truly marine species (G. spinochia, Linn.), it is also found in the sea. The salt water kind just alluded to is a larger and more elongated species, measuring above half a foot in length, and commonly called the fifteen-spined stickle-back. It is sometimes named the Sea-adder, probably from its lengthened snake-like aspect, and is not uncom- mon on the Scottish shores. We have taken it while dredging in that long sea basin called the Cromarty Firth. Mr. Couch transferred a speci- STICKLE-BACKS. 101 men to a vessel of water, along with an eel of three inches in length, and it speedily attacked and swal- lowed its companion head foremost, but, owing to its great comparative bulk, only partially, the tail remaining suspended from the mouth, so that it was at last obliged to disgorge its prey, though half digested. " The effect of the passions on the colour of the skin in the species of the genus Gasterosteus is remarkable, and the specimen now spoken of, under the influence of terror, from a dark olive with golden sides, changed to pale for eighteen hours, when it as suddenly regained its former tints."11* We know not whether, when the latter change occurred, the fish was placed in a vessel of a different colour, but the former alteration may probably be accounted for on a principle well known to naturalists, in accordance with which an almost instantaneous change takes place in the colour of a fish when it either moves spontaneously between two beds of differently coloured ground or gravel, or is transferred from its native haunts to any earthen vessel. Dr. Stark has well shewn that these changes are effected in connection not only with the colour of the inside coating of the vessel, but with the intensity of light to which they may be otherwise exposed. Whatever the physical cause of this may be, the final effect is alike admirable and obvious, in securing them from too inquisitorial ob- servation in shallow rivers, or on sandy shores. * Couch's MS. as quoted by Mr. Yarrell, BRITISH FISHES, i. 89. We may add, on the authority of Dr. Johnston of Berwick, that this is one of the few fishes which makes a nest. 102 ANGLING. THE MACKEREL.* IN conformity with a preceding intimation, we shall devote an occasional paragraph to such of the sea fishes, in their order, as afford the angler any recreation. Of these is that valuable table species just named. It may be captured, time and place suiting, with a strong rod, and coarse tenacious line, baited with almost anything to which it is possible to give a life-like motion, — a sea gulFs feather, a strip of leather, a piece of fish, of flesh, or, — as we once had occasion to try, — an inch or two of scarlet ribbon. A favourite and successful bait is that called a lask, which consists merely of a long slice cut from one mackerel and swallowed by another, upon the principle, probably, that " it is not lost which a friend gets." This lure is cut thickest towards the hook, and tapers backwards, that it may vibrate vivaciously when drawn through the water. The angler must be in a sailing boat, and the boat under the influence of a fresh breeze. " The line," says Mr. Couch, is short, but is weighed down by a heavy plummet ; and in this manner, when these fish abound, two men will take from 500 to 1000 in a day. It is singular that the greatest number of mackerel are caught when the boat moves most rapidly, and that even then the hook is commonly gorged. It seems that the mackerel takes its food by striking across the course of what it supposes to be its flying prey. * Scomber scombrus, Cuv. and Val. THE MACKEREL. 103 A gloomy atmosphere materially aids this kind of fishing for mackerel." This species is one of the most beautifully coloured of our fishes, but is too well known to need description. It is widely spread throughout the seas of Europe, and occurs at different periods along different portions of our British shores. On the Cornish coast it sometimes appears as early as the month of March, but the fishermen of Lowe- stoffe and Yarmouth do not reap their chief harvest till May and June; and during these months, besides being abundant, they are best conditioned. As an article of food they are in great request, although certain constitutions find them heavy or even unwholesome. We need scarcely say that they must be eaten very fresh, — few fishes tainting sooner than mackerel. It was in consequence of their being so unfit for keeping, that the practice was first allowed in London, so far back as 1698, of their being cried along the streets for sale on Sundays, — an unandrewagnew-like custom, which, we are sorry to say, is still continued. The success of this fishing exceeded all precedent in 1821, — during which season the take of sixteen boats in a single day (30th June) amounted to =£5,252. The Messrs. Pagets have stated the calculation to be, that in the season of 1823, about 1,420,000 mackerel were taken in the vicinity of Yarmouth. So abundant were they at Dover, as to be sold at the rate of threescore for a shilling. The usual weight of a well-sized fish is about two pounds. They are sometimes heavier, but the 1 04 ANGLING. largest individuals are not the best for the table. Though a well-known species along our Scottish coasts, the mackerel is by no means so abundant with us in Scotland as in England. It usually makes its appearance at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in June, confining itself for a few weeks to the vicinity of the Bass rock, and extending in the course of July to Prestonpans, and across to Largo, Buckhaven, and Wemyss. A few stragglers are occasionally found as high up the Firth as Queens- ferry.* We have already alluded to the singular fact of the common mackerel having no swimming- bladder, although that organ is found in several closely allied species, What necessity of nature, asks Baron Cuvier, can require it in the one and not in the other ? What can have produced it ? These are great problems (of no easy solution), both in the study of final causes^ and the general philosophy of nature. The preceding species terminate the British angler's list of the acanthopterygian fishes, dis- tinguished as an Order by the first portion of the dorsal, or the first dorsal, if there are two fins of that kind, being always supported by spinous rays, and where some similar spines are also found in the anal fin, and at least one in each of the ventrals. But in the following species, all the rays are soft, with the occasional exception of the first of the dorsal, * Dr. Parnell, " On the Fishes of the Firth of Forth."— WERNE- RIAN MEMOIRS, vol. vii. THE COMMON CARP. 105 or of the pectorals. They form the malacopteryglan order of naturalists, of which our first species is \ This fish, like the preceding, is asserted to have been introduced into England by Leonard Mascal, a gentleman of Sussex, early in the 1 6th century ; and in good company, if there is truth in the old distich, Turkies, carps, hops, pickerell, and beer, Came into England all in one year. The carp is, however, mentioned as a dayntous fysshe though scarce, by Juliana Barnes, in the year 1496. It attains to a prodigious size in the waters of the south of Europe, and in the Lake of Como is said sometimes to weigh 200 pounds. The largest of which we have any precise ac- count is that mentioned by Bloch. It was taken * Cyprinus cai-pio, Linn. K 106 ANGLING. near Frankfort- on- the- Oder, and weighed seventy pounds, with a length of nearly nine feet. In certain lakes of Germany individuals are occasion- ally taken of the weight of thirty or forty pounds ; and Pallas relates that they occur in the Wolga five feet long. The fecundity of these fishes is very great, and their numbers consequently would soon become excessive, but for the many enemies by which their spawn is attacked. No fewer than 700,000 eggs have been found in the ovaria of a single carp, and that by no means of large size. Their growth is also very rapid. This fish breeds more freely in ponds than in rivers, although those of the latter are more esteemed. Angling for carp requires, according to Walton, " a very large measure of patience." The haunts of this fish in the winter months are the broadest and least disturbed part of rivers, where the bottom is soft and muddy ; but in summer it usually lies in deep holes, near some scour, under roots of trees, and beneath hollow banks, or in the neighbourhood of beds of aquatic weeds. In ponds they thrive best in a rich marl or clayey soil, where they have the benefit of shade from an overhanging grove of trees. Small carp bite eagerly, but the larger and more experienced fish are deceived with difficulty. The rod should be of good length, the line strong, furnished with a quill float, and ending in a few lengths of the best silk-worm gut. The hook is proportioned to the size of the bait, and a single shot is fixed about twelve inches above it. " Three rods," says Daniel, " may be employed ; one with THE COMMON CARP. 107 the bait at mid-water, another a foot or less from the bottom, and the third to lie upon it when the line and lead are not discovered, as in the two former ; the places intended to be fished in should, the night before, be ground-baited with grains, blood, and broken worms, incorporated together with clay, the hook baits should be red worms taken out of tan, flag or marsh worms, green peas so boiled as to soften, but not to break the skin, and throwing some in now and then. When this bait is used, — which should be with one on the hook to swim a foot from the ground, — in case of a bite, strike immediately; a large carp, upon taking the bait, directly steers for the opposite side of the river or pond."* During hot weather, when these fish are about to spawn, and whilst lying among the weeds near the surface, they may be angled for with a fine line, without either sink or float. The hook may be baited with a red worm, a pair of gentles, a caterpillar, or a cad bait, and thrown lightly as in fly-fishing, and then drawn towards the angler. If it can be made to fall first O upon the leaf of some water plant, and then dropped upon the surface, the chance of success will be in- creased. The best months are May, June, and July, and the most advisable times of the day are from sunrise to eight in the morning, and from sunset during the continuance of twilight, and onwards through the night. It is the opinion of many, though we cannot trace the origin of the * Rural Sports, vol. ii. p. 257. 108 ANGLING. idea, no doubt an erroneous one, that the 10th of April is a fatal day for carp. The beautiful and almost domesticated species called par excellence the gold-fish, is likewise a species of Cyprinus, — C. auratus of Naturalists. It is the most brilliantly adorned of all our fresh water fishes, and is indeed scarcely surpassed even by the more richly ornamented inhabitants of the ocean. It was originally a native of China, al- though now domesticated, so to speak, in almost every country, both of the old and new world. Like the carp it has the dorsal and anal fins denticulated. When young it is of a blackish hue, and gradually acquires the splendid golden red colour by which it is usually characterised. The silver fish com- monly so called, is the same species, with a dif- ference merely in the metallic tinting. Indeed, like most other creatures long estranged by captivity from their natural habits, and subjected to artificial influences, the golden carp exhibits innumerable varieties both in form and colour. M. Sauvigny has represented eighty-nine of these, — manifesting all shades of silvery white and purple, orange, red, and gold.* These variations extend even to some important parts of structure. Individuals occur without a dorsal fin, others with an unusually large one, some with the caudal fin greatly increased in size, and divided into three or four lobes. In certain cases the eyes are enormously dilated. * Histoire Naturelledes Dorades de la Chine.) Paris, 1780. THE GOLD-FISH. 109 This magnificent fish is said to have been origi- nally confined to a lake near the mountain Tsien- king in the province of The-kiang, in .China, about N. Lat. 30°. They were first brought to Europe in the seventeenth century (different years are assigned by different authors), and continued very rare in England till J 728, when a fresh accession was received. The first seen in France were sent for Madame Pompadour. The French have naturalised them in the Mauritius, where they are now ex- tremely common, both in artificial ponds and natural streams, and are frequently served up as food. Por- tugal abounds with them more than any other Euro- pean country. With us they do not flourish well either in rivers or open ponds, not so much because such places are uncongenial to their nature, as on account of their defenceless condition, and the numerous enemies to which they are exposed. An increase of warmth, however, is very influential in relation to their productive powers, and they are known to breed very freely in the engine-dams of manufacturing districts, where the water has an average temperature of about 80 degrees. They are found, under these circumstances, in a kind of water-cut, connected with the Clyde near Glasgow, and may thus eventually become naturalised in that river. " The extreme elegance of the form of the golden carp, the splendour of their scaly covering, the ease and agility of their movements, and the facility with which they are kept alive in very small vessels, place them amongst the most pleas- 110 ANGLING. ing and desirable of our pets/'* According to Mr. Jesse, they even maintain an affection for each other. In confinement they may be fed with fine crumbs of bread, small worms, flies, yolks of eggs dried and reduced to powder, and various other articles. We usually feed our own with manna croup. Many people, however, even humane-minded philanthropists, and M. S. P. C. A.'s,~f- never give them any food at all. We ourselves once heard a clergyman say, that they did not require to be fed, because nature had endowed them with the power " of decomposing oxygen." If the stomach is satisfied by this theory, the gills will assuredly make no objection to it. As this brilliant creature is not an angler's fish, we scarcely know why we have been led to name it here. Perhaps, because at this moment it ever and anon is flashing its golden gleams upon us from a glassy globe upon that marble slab between our windows. Let us enliven our own dull prose by now inserting the great Laker's rhymes : — Type of a sunny human breast Is your transparent cell, Where fear is but a transient guest, No sullen humours dwell ; Where sensitive of every ray That smites this tiny sea, Your scaly panoplies repay The loan with usury. How beautiful ! Yet none knows why This ever-graceful change, * Magazine of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 478. "\" Members of societies for preventing cruelty to animals. THE GOLD-FISH. 11] Renewed — renewed incessantly — Within your quiet range. Is it that ye, with conscious skill, For mutual pleasure glide ; And sometimes not without your will, Are dwarfed and magnified ? The happy prisoners here immortalised, having been removed to a pool in the pleasure-ground of Rydal Mount, — Removed in kindness from their glassy cell To the fresh waters of a living well, the poet proceeds to cast upon them, from his magic mirror, " the light that never was on sea or land,"— There swims, of blazing sun and beating shower, Fearless (but how obscured !) the golden power, That from his bauble prison used to cast Gleams by the richest jewel unsurpast ; And near him, darkling like a sullen gnome, The silver tenant of the chrystal dome ; Dissevered both from all the mysteries Of hue and altering shape that charmed all eyes. They pined, perhaps they languished, while they shone ; And, if not so, what matters beauty gone, And admiration lost, by change of place, That brings to the inward creature no disgrace ? But if the change restore his birthright, then, Whate'er the difference, boundless is the gain. Who can divine what impulses from God Reach the caged lark, within a town abode, From his poor inch or two of daisied sod \ Oh, yield him back his privilege ! No sea Swells like the bosom of a man set free — A wilderness is rich with liberty. Roll on, ye spouting whales, who die or keep Your independence in the fathomless deep ! Spread, tiny Nautilus, the living sail ; Dive, at thy choice, or brave the freshening gale ! If unreproved the ambitious eagle mount Sunward to seek the daylight in its fount, 112 ANGLING. Bays, gulfs, and ocean's Indian width, shall be, Till the world perishes, a field for thee ! While musing here I sit in shadow cool, And watch these mute companions in the pool, Among reflected boughs of leafy trees, By glimpses caught — disporting at their ease — Enlivened, braced, by hardy luxuries, I ask what warrant fixed them (like a spell Of witchcraft, fixed them) in the crystal cell ; To wheel, with languid motion, round and round Beautiful, yet in mournful durance bound. Their peace, perhaps, our lightest footfall marred, On their quick sense our sweetest music jarred ; And whither could they dart, if seized with fear ? No sheltering stone, no tangled root was near. When fire or taper ceased to cheer the room, They wore away the night in starless gloom ; And when the sun first dawned upon the streams, How* aint their portion of his vital beams ! Thus, and unable to complain, they fared, While not one joy of ours by them was shared.* THE BARBEL.-f" This fish is frequent in the warm and temperate parts of Europe, and abounds in the Rhine and Elbe. It is unknown in Scotland, but occurs in the Thames, and the river Lea in Essex. The former river, in the neighbourhood of London, from Putney upwards, produces quantities of large barbel, but, according to Mr. Yarrell, they are held in little estimation except for sport. They frequent the weedy por- tions of the river during summer, but seek the deeper water when the weeds decay ; they then also shelter themselves near piles, locks, and bridges, till the ensuing spring, They are so numerous * Farrow Revisited, and other poems, p. 148. f Barbus vulyaris, Flem. and Cuv. Cyprimis barlus, Linn. THE BARBEL. 113 near Shepperton and Watten that one hundred and fifty pounds weight has been taken in the course of five hours, and on one occasion two hun- dred and eighty pounds weight of large sized barbel was captured in a single day. The largest British specimen recorded weighed fifteen and a half pounds. Mr. Jesse has frequently caught barbel while spin- ning for large Thames trout with bleak or minnow. The barbel feeds on slugs, worms, and fishes, and its spawning season occurs in May and June. The ova, amounting to seven or eight thousand, are deposited on the gravel, and covered over by the parents.* In a culinary point of view this is one of the worst of the fresh- water fishes. It is gregarious, and roots among the soft banks with its nose, like a sow. During this process small fish are seen to attend upon it, probably with a view to seize on whatever minute aquatic creatures may be dis- lodged from earth or stones. The angling season commences in May, and con- tinues till September. The most approved hours are from daylight till ten in the morning, and from four in the afternoon till about sunset. The line should be strong and rather heavily leaded, so that the bait may float about half an inch from the ground. Considerable caution is required in play- ing this fish, as he is apt to run off when struck, with great violence, towards some stronghold, and in so doing sometimes breaks both rod and line. * British FisJies, vol. i. p. 322. 114 ANGLING. He is rather nice in his baits, which must be kept clean and sweet, and untainted by musty moss. " One caution," says Mr. Daniel, " in angling for barbel, will bear repetition: never throw in the bait farther than enabled by a gentle cast of the rod, letting the plumb fall into the water with the least possible noise. It is an error to think that large fish are in the middle of the river ; experience teaches the fallacy of this opinion ; they naturally seek their food near the banks, and agitating the waters by an injudicious management of the plumb will certainly drive them away." THE GUDGEON.' This small but highly esteemed fish is angled for with a little red worm, near the ground. It bites so freely that many dozens may be taken in a few hours, and affords pleasant occupation to young anglers, and even to those of more advanced years who value sweetness of taste as much as largeness of dimension. It delights in the scours or rippling shallows of otherwise slow running streams. Its habits are gregarious, and the opera- tion of spawning takes place in spring, and occupies a considerable period, being as it were postponed and renewed from time to time. The fry measures about an inch long by the beginning of August, and the fish itself seldom exceeds eight inches. The gudgeon, like many other good things, seems confined to the southern quarter of the island, at least we know of none in Scotland. * Gobio flumatiliS) Cuv. Cyprinus gobio, Linn. THE TENCH. 1 1 5 THE TENCH.* This species is a lover of still waters, and his haunts in rivers are among weeds, or pools well screened by bushes. Tench are found spawning from June till September, and they are in the best condition from the latter month till the end of May. The tackle should be strong, with a swan or goose-quill float for ponds, and a piece of cork for rivers. The hook (in size from No. 4 to 6,) should be whipt to sound silk- worm gut, with two or three shot fixed to it at the distance of a foot. The bait should float about a couple of feet from the surface, and should be drawn occasionally gently up wards, and allowed slowly to sink again. Small marsh worms, middle-sized lobs, or the red species found in rotten tan, are to be recommended. " He- will bite," says Walton, "at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or at a marsh- worm, or a lob- worm ; he in- clines very much to any paste with which tan is mixed, and he will bite also at a smaller worm with his head nipped off, and a sod-worm put on the hook before that worm ; and I doubt not but that he will also in the three hot months, for in the * Tinea vulyaris, Cuv. Flem. Cyprinus tinea, Bloch. 116 ANGLING. nine colder he stirs not much, bite at a flag-worm, or at a green gentle : but can positively say no more of the tench, he being a fish that I have not often angled for; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate when he fishes." The general colour of this species is a deep yel- lowish brown, frequently assuming a fine golden hue. Its usual length is from twelve to fourteen inches, but instances are known of its reaching three feet. In winter it conceals itself in mud, and seems during that season to fall into a kind of torpidity. Its ova are very minute, of a green colour, and so numerous that nearly 300,000 have been found in a single female of not more than four pounds in weight. The tench is very exten- sively distributed, occurring over a great portion of the globe. In Scotland, however, it is only an imported species. Its flesh is not much esteemed, being soft, insipid, and by no means easy of diges- tion. It is extremely tenacious of life. THE BREAM, OR CARP BREAM.* This fish breeds both in deep slow-running rivers, * Abramis brama, Cuv. THE BREAM. 11 7 and in ponds ; — it prefers the latter. The most enticing bait is a well conditioned earth-worm, al- though the angler also uses paste made of bread and honey, wasp grubs, grasshoppers, &c. Boiled wheat serves well for ground-baiting the spot on the preceding night, and some fasten a number of worms to a piece of turf, and sink it to the bottom. When the ground has been thus prepared, and the tackle put in order, the angler should commence his labours by three or four in the morning. Let him approach the place with caution, so as not to be perceived by the fish, and cast his hook, neatly baited with a live and moving worm, in such a manner that the lead may lie about the centre of the prepared ground. The bream is a strong fish, and runs smartly when first struck ; but after a few turns he falls over on his side, and allows the angler to land him without much trouble. He is by no means so lively as the carp. The best hours for bream are from four till eight in the morning, and from four in the afternoon till eight in the evening. In the river Trent, near Newark, there are two kinds of bream. The common species is that called the carp bream, from its yellow colour, and it sometimes attains the weight of eight pounds. The other species or variety, regarded by Mr. Revett Shepherd as a nondescript, never exceeds a pound in weight. It is of a silvery hue, and is known by the name of white bream.* The bream, * Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 587. This is now recognised as a distinct species, under the title of white bream, or bream flat, — Abramis blicca 118 ANGLING. though rare in Scotland, occurs in Loch Maben. The lakes of Cumberland occasionally produce it of a great size, and, in those of Ireland it has been known to attain a weight of from twelve to fourteen pounds. "A place," says Mr. Yarrell, "conve- niently situated for the fishing, is baited with grains or other coarse food for ten days or a fortnight regularly, after which great sport is usually ob- tained. The party frequently catch several hundred weight, which are distributed among the poor of the vicinity, who split and dry them with great care, to eat with their potatoes. The bream, as food, is best in season in spring and autumn."* It yields, however, but an indifferent diet, and is often culti- vated in ponds for the indirect advantage it affords as food for pike. of Cuvier, figured by Mr. Yarrell in his first volume, p. 340. " Its mode of biting," adds the last named author, " when angled for, is singular; it appears more prone to rise than to descend, and the float, consequently, instead of being drawn under water, is laid hori- zontally on the surface by the attack of the fish on the bait." * British Fislies, vol. i. p. 337. THE ROACH.* The carp has been named the " water-fox," on account of his subtlety, and the roach the " water- sheep," by reason of his silliness. This fish makes good soup, though very bony, and otherwise not much esteemed. The season for roach fishing in the Thames, where the species attains to a larger size than elsewhere, commences about the end of August. " Next, let me tell you," says Walton, " you shall fish for this roach in winter with paste or gentles, in April with worms or caddis, in the very hot months with little white snails, or with flies under water ; for he seldom takes them at the top, though the dace will. In many of the hot months roaches may be also caught thus : — Take a May-fly or ant- fly ; sink him with a little lead to the bottom, near the piles or posts of a bridge, or near to any posts of a wear — I mean any deep place where roaches * Leuciscus rutilus, Cuv. Cyprinus rutihts, Linn. 1 20 ANGLING. lie quietly — and then pull your fly up very leisurely, and usually a roach will follow your bait to the very top of the water, and gaze on it there, and run at it, and take it, lest the fly should fly away from him."* Vast shoals of this species ascend the streams in the parish of Killearn, from Loch Lo- mond, and are caught by nets in thousands. Their emigration from the loch, however, continues only for the space of three or four days towards the end of May.-f It has been remarked by anglers, that while these fish continue in the streams, and for a week after their departure, scarcely can a trout be taken either with minnow, worm, or fly, in consequence of that species being gorged with the roaches1 spawn. Donovan supposes that roach come up in large shoals from the sea to deposit their ova, while Montagu expresses his belief that they cannot exist in sea-water at all. Dr. Parnell remarks, that al- though the sea is certainly not the natural abode of the roach, yet it is sometimes found there, being carried down from lakes or rivers after high floods. " In the Solway Firth, I saw in the month of June, five examples taken in the salmon-nets ; and I was informed by the fisherman there, that in the early part of the season they frequently captured them after a flood." J Montagu founds his opinion upon the following fact. A certain small river runs into a large piece of water close to the sea, on the south * Complete Angler, p. 218. -\- Statistical Account of Scotland, vol xvi. p. 100. J Fishes of the Firth of Forth, p. 108. THE ROACH. ] 21 coast of Devon, and there is no outlet for the fresh water, except by percolation through the shingle that forms the barrier between it and the salt. There the roach throve and multiplied beyond pre- cedent. Some years ago, however, the sea broke over the boundary, and continued for some time to flow copiously into the lake at every tide, — by which " untoward event" all the fresh water fishes were destroyed. But we conceive that this fact is by no means of a conclusive nature, in as far as there may be an essential difference, in relation to the effect upon a fish's constitution, between a forced and sudden, and a voluntary and graduated contact with saline waters. In the latter case there is a physiological expectation or preparation for the change, and we doubt if even salmon, so remarkable for their long and vivacious continuance in both conditions of the liquid element, would suddenly 44 suffer a sea change " with entire impunity, or enjoy the "vice versa"1"1 if instantaneously trans- ported from ocean's blue profound, and plunged over head and ears into a " cauldron lynn." The roach is a gregarious species, and usually swims in large shoals. It spawns in May and June, at which period the scales feel rough to the touch. It is not held in high esteem as food, but is in best condition in October. The usual colour of the upper parts is dusky green with blue reflec- tions, softened off upon the sides, and passing into silvery white upon the under portions. The dorsal and caudal fins are reddish brown, the pectorals of a more orange hue, the ventrals and anals red. L 122 ANGLING. The dimensions vary greatly, as in other fishes. A roach of two pounds was deemed by Walton worthy of record. The largest known to Mr. Jesse weighed three pounds. Mr. Pennant alludes to one which weighed five pounds. But the great majority do not much exceed a few ounces. This fish, though common in England, is found in few of the Scotch lakes and rivers. It follows, how- ever, the lines of our canals, and may now be caught in considerable quantities (by those who have per- mission so to do) at the eastern terminus of the Union Canal, in the western suburb of Edinburgh. THE DACE.* This species bears some resemblance to the pre- ceding both in its aspect and habits, but it is less generally distributed over England, and does not, so far as we are informed, occur naturally in Scotland at all. It is common on the continent of Europe. It is gregarious, swims in shoals, and spawns in June. It seldom exceeds nine or ten inches in length, and as an article of consumption, is preferable to the roach. " Its food is worms and other soft substances ; but like the trout, it will occasionally rise at an artificial fly, and it is fre- quently taken by fly- fishers while whipping for that fish."~f* Above Richmond, as soon as the weeds begin to rot, a grasshopper used as an arti- ficial fly is found very successful in hot weather among the shallows. This mode can only be * Leuciscus vulgaris, Cuv,- — Cyprimis leitciscus, Linn, f British Fislws, vol. i, p. 3£3. THE GRAINING. 123 practised in a boat, with a heavy stone to serve as an anchor, fastened to a few yards of rope. The boat drifts gently down the stream, and the stone is dropped whenever the angler considers himself in the neighbourhood of a likely place. Standing in the stern, he first throws directly down the stream, and then to the right and left ; and after trying for about a quarter of an hour in one spot, he again weighs anchor, and proceeds to another station. The English trollers also use the dace as bait for pike, on account of its silvery lustre ; but where a living lure is required, as for lines set by night, a roach is preferable, on account of its greater tenacity of life.* Few, however, advocate live bait fishing now-a-days, either by precept or example. THE GRAINIXG.-f- This fish is quite unknown in Scotland, and seein.s singularly restricted even in the sister kingdom. According to Mr. Yarrell. it is only to be met with in certain streams in the township of Burton- wood and Sanky, which flow into the Mersey below Warrington, and in others, in or near the town- ship of Knowsley, which also form the Alt, in Lancashire. Its upper parts are of a pale drab colour, tinged with bluish red, and separated from the lighter coloured lower portions by a well-de- fined boundary line. All the fins are of a pale yellowish white. It resembles the trout in its * British Fishes, vol. i. p. 354. f Leuciscus Lancastriensis, Yarrell. — Cyprinus Lancastriensis, Shaw. 124 ANGLING. food and habits, frequents both the still and rapid parts of rivers, but has not yet been seen in ponds. It is angled for with artificial flies, at which, ac- cording to Mr. Bainbridge, it rises freely, and affords excellent sport. When " on the rise," a pannier may be filled in no great length of time. The graining is better eating than the dace, but it is also a smallish fish, seldom exceeding half-a- pound in weight. It is believed to exist in Switzerland. THE CHUB, OB SKELLY.* This fish occurs in England, Wales, and the south of Scotland. It is sometimes called shelly in Cum- berland (although the species usually so designated in that country is in truth the guyniad), by reason, it is said, of the great size of the scales. It is a shy and timid species, frequenting deep water in the quiet parts of streams, or screening itself from sight by keeping beneath some overhanging bush or tree. It feeds on worms and insects, — especially cock-chafers, which, according to Mr. Jesse, are * Leticisctis cephaliiSj Flem. Yar. — Cyprinus cephalus, Linn. THE CHUB. 125 irresistible. So far as angling is concerned, it is usually caught by that peculiar mode of art called dibbing. The lure, whether moth or beetle, is allowed to hang perpendicularly from the point of the rod, and just touching the water. By tapping the butt-end with the knuckles, a trembling or gentle struggling is produced, in imitation of what would be the natural movements of the insect, had it fallen unincumbered by hook or line upon the water. The chub will be made to rise by this de- ception, if he is inclined to rise at all. He often, however, prefers to continue sitting where he is. This species spawns in spring, and is regarded as rather coarse, the best mode of dressing being that of broiling with the scales on. It seldom attains to any considerable size, though a specimen is re- corded which weighed five pounds. The chub is rather a dull fish upon the hook, and is speedily tired. Great caution is required on the angler's part, as it is naturally fearful, and sinks, on the least alarm, towards the bottom of the stream. The baits used, besides those already mentioned, are maggots, grasshoppers, salmon-roe, &c. Black and dun flies gaudily dressed, and ribbed with gold or silver twist, are well adapted for deceit in streams, and the red-spinner is not to be despised. The landing net is particularly necessary in angling for chub, as the best spots are generally encumbered by trees or bushes, which prevent or interfere with the fish being either drawn to hand or pulled ashore. 126 ANGLING. THE RED-EYE OR RUDD.* This is a common continental fish, well known in the Thames, and not uncommon in several of the southern counties of England, but becoming rarer as we proceed northward. We have never met with it in Scotland, although it is recorded as oc- curring here. It is found in Lough Neagh in Ireland, under the misapplied name of roach. " The rudd," says Mr. Yarrell, " in addition to its vivid colours, is also tenacious of life, — and is on that account preferred by trollers as a bait for pike. It breeds freely without requiring any care to be bestowed upon it, — and is therefore useful as food for large perch, trout, or pike. It is said to be a much better fish to • eat than the roach, but does not attain more than two pounds' weight. The food of the rudd is worms, molluscous animals and insects, with some vegetable matter ; it spawns in April, or early in May, on or .about aquatic plants, — and the scales at this period are rough to the hand." f The iris in this species is of an orange red colour, — from whence both its English and Latinised spe- cific name. The cheeks and gill covers are golden yellow ; the upper parts brown tinged with green and blue ; the sides pale ; the abdomen of a light golden yellow ; and the entire surface of the body * Lcuriscus erytlirotlialmus, Cuv. — Cyprinm erythrothalmus, Linn, f British Fishes, vol. i. p. 362. THE AZURINE. 127 is pervaded by a brilliant reddish golden hue, of which the tint varies with the fall of light. The fins are of a cinnabar red colour, those of the back and tail being more inclined towards reddish brown. It is no doubt of this fish that Izaak Walton af- firms " there is a kind of bastard small roach, that breeds in ponds, with a very forked tail, and of a very small size, which some say is bred by the bream and right roach ; and some ponds are stored with these beyond belief; and knowing men that know the difference call them rudds : they differ from the true roach as much as a herring from a pilchard." We believe that both the rudd and white bream have been by some regarded as hybrids, but we agree with Mr. Yarrell in thinking that the instances in which animals in a state of un- constrained nature seek society (sexually) beyond their own species, are extremely rare. Hybrids and permanent varieties are the result of restriction and domestication, and notwithstanding the opinion to which Sir Humphrey Davy and other wise and learned observers have leaivt, " I confess my doubts of the existence of hybrid fishes.1'' THE AZURINE, OR BLUE ROACH.* This is another Lancashire species discovered and described by Mr. Yarrell. •(• It was transmitted to that observant naturalist by Lord Derby, and occurs in certain limited localities within the town- * Leuciscus cceruleus, Yarr. t Linn. Trans, vol. xvii. p. 8, and British Fisties, vol. i. p. 365. 128 ANGLING. ship of Knowsley. It is hardy, tenacious of life, and spawns in May. The flesh is firm and good, somewhat resembling that of the perch. Its natural food, and the baits used in its capture, are the same as those of the carp. The largest specimens yet met with have not exceeded a pound in weight. The colour of the upper parts is slate blue, passing beneath into a silvery white, — the whole surface tinged with a metallic lustre. The irides have a tinge of straw colour, — the fins are white. Al- though Mr. Yarrell, in regard to this species, is certainly entitled to the credit of a first describer, yet M. Agassiz in a recent visit to this country, recognised the azurine as a well known inhabitant of some of the Swiss lakes. THE BLEAK.* This small and active fish may be angled for with what is called a pater noster line, which con- sists of half a dozen of fine hooks fastened about 6 or 8 inches from each other. These may be baited with gentles, or more variously, to increase the temptation, with a gentle, a small red worm, a fly, &c. and thus several fish may be hooked at the same time. In angling for bleak the tackle must be very fine. In fresh streams they rise well at the black gnat, or any other small sad-coloured %• The bleak is a gregarious fish of six or seven inches in length, which inhabits most of the streams * Leudscus alburnus, Cuv. THE MINNOW. 129 in England, frequented by roach and dace. It is chiefly prized by the juvenile angler, being of an open candid nature, and easy of access by means of almost any small fly. Mr. Jesse informs us, that it is the most amusing and playful of all the species confined in the vivarium of Bushy Park. " Their activity could not be exceeded, and it gave me much pleasure to. see them, on a still summer's evening, dart at every little fly that settled on the water near them, — appearing always restless, and yet always happy." Mr. Yarrell states that the bleak is frequently found to have its intestines oc- cupied by tape-worms, and that the name of mad bleak, is bestowed upon such as are seen occasion- ally swimming in an agitated and unnatural man- ner on the surface of the water. These peculiar movements are supposed to result from the pain produced by their internal tormentors. The body of this species is of an elongated and narrow form, the forehead straight, and the lower jaw somewhat extended. The colour above is pale greenish or ashy-brown, tinged with blue, the sides and abdomen silvery white. The bleak is common* in Europe, and is one of the species whose nacre, or silvery matter, is used in the fabrication of artificial pearls. THE MINNOW.* Although the sportsman of maturer years may despise " this small familiar fry," we cannot al- together pass over, in our brief record of angler's * Leuciscus phoannus, Cuv. Cyprinus p1ioa,inusy Linn. M 130 ANGLING. fishes, a species which so delights the universal childhood, and which, even in after life, so usefully subserves as bait for larger prey. It is the fish by means of which almost all our youthful anglers commence their experience of the gentle art. " He is a sharp biter," says our Father Walton, " at a small worm, and in hot weather makes excellent sport for young anglers, or boys, or women that love that recreation ; and in the spring they make of them excellent minnow-tansies ; for being washed well in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use ; that is, being fried with yolks of eggs, the flower of cowslips and of primroses, and a little tansie. Thus used, they make a dainty dish of meat." The external aspect of this beautiful little crea- ture is no doubt familiar to all our innumerable readers. It is the smallest species of the genus found in Europe, the greatest length to which it attains seldom exceeding three inches. It makes its appearance in our streams in March, and dis- appears in October, passing the intermediate'months below the sheltering banks, or buried beneath the gravel. It is a very gregarious species, and small shoals are to be found in almost every shallow river, especially in fine clear weather, — the species seeming to delight in warmth and sunshine. The minnow usually spawns in the month of June, but its ova are often formed at an after period. It is very prolific, and during the spawning season the head becomes covered by small pale coloured tuber- THE LOACH. 131 cles, — the parents themselves, especially the males, being at the same time brilliantly adorned by ruddy green and gold. The flesh of the minnow is delicate and well flavoured, but its size is too small to admit of its being of much value as an article of food. It is principally used as a bait for the capture of the larger kinds. THE LOACH OR, BEARDIE.* We here name this familiar species also rather from love to the associations of early life, than from any respect we bear to its own character. The loach is entirely a ground fish, living in clear and gravelly streams. It forms an excellent bait for eels, and is also a nutritious food for man, though of a slimy surface, and somewhat forbidding aspect. It feeds on small worms, and various aquatic insects, and is very prolific, — spawning in early spring. Its flesh is highly regarded by many, and some con- tinental people hold it in such esteem, as to cause its transportation from one river to another, at considerable expense and trouble. Frederick the First of Sweden, caused loaches to be carried from Germany, with a view to their being naturalized in his own more northern kingdom.*}1 * Cobitis larbatula, Linn, f FAUNA SUECICA. ].32 ANGLING. TJIE PIKE."* This " fell tyrant of the liquid plain" is not regarded as indigenous to the waters of Britain, hut is said to have been introduced in the time of Henry VIII. That it was well known in England at an earlier period is however evident, both from the book of St. Alban's, printed by Wynken de Worde in 1496, and from the account of the great feast given by George Nevil, archbishop of York, in the year 1466. There is in truth no evidence either of its non-existence in this country at a remote period, or of its importation during com- paratively recent times. •(* * Esox lucius, Linn. •f" " That pike," says Mr. Yarrell, " were rare formerly, may be inferred from the fact, that in the latter part of the thirteenth century, Edward the First, who con descended to regulate the prices of the dif- ferent sorts of fish then brought to market, that his subjects might not be left to the mercy of the venders, fixed the value of pike higher than that of fresh salmon, and more than ten times greater than that of the best turbot or cod. In proof of the estimation in which pike were held in the reign of Edward the Third, I may again refer to the time of Chaucer, already quoted at page 336. Pikes are men- THE PIKE. 133 The voracity of this fish is almost unexampled, even in a class remarkable for their omnivorous propensities. Goslings, young ducks, and coots, water-rats, kittens, and the young of its own species, besides every kind of fresh water fish, have been found in the stomach of the pike. It is said to contend with the otter for its prey, and has been known to pull a mule into the water by the nose, and a washerwoman by the foot. There seems, indeed, to be no bounds to its glut- tony, as it devours almost indiscriminately what- ever edible substance it meets with, and swallows every animal it can subdue. " It is," says Lacepede, " the shark of the fresh waters, and reigns there a devastating tyrant, as does its prototype in the midst of the ocean ; insatiable in its appetites, it ravages with fearful rapidity the streams, the lakes, the fish ponds, wherever it inhabits. Blindly ferocious, it does not spare its species, and devours even its own young ; gluttonous without choice, it tears and swallows with a sort of fury the re- mains even of putrid carcases. This blood-thirsty creature is also one of those to which nature has accorded the longest duration of years ; for ages it terrifies, agitates, pursues, murders, and devours the feebler inhabitants of the waters ; and as if, in spite of its insatiable cruelty it was meant it should tioned in an Act of the sixth year of the reign of Richard the Second, 1382, which relates to the forstalling of fish." " Pike were so rare in the reign of Henry the Eighth, that a large one sold for double the price of a house-lamb in February, and a picherel, or small pike, for more than a fat capon." — BRITISH FISHES, vol. i. p. 384. 134 ANGLING. receive every advantage, it has not only been gifted with great strength, gigantic size, and formidable weapons, but has also been adorned with elegance of form, symmetry of proportions, and richness and variety of colour."* We cannot altogether agree with this eloquent and ingenious French writer, in his admiration of the general aspect of the pike. Like almost all fishes, it bears about it some beauti- ful tinting when fresh, but we think its long lank jaws, and sunken eyes, give it rather a malign or diabolical expression, such as we would by no means approve of in any near relation of our own. A singular instance of its voracity is related by Johnson, who asserts that he saw one killed which contained in its interior another pike of large size, and the latter, on being opened, was found to have swallowed a water rat ! We ourself once killed a small pike about seven pounds in weight, and in his interior was found a promising young pike above a pound weight (probably his own eldest son), which he had swallowed, we can scarcely think in- advertently, as the tail continued sticking out of his mouth like a quid of tobacco. The beauty of the thing was, that the heir-apparent had previously swallowed a perch, and this would have been all well enough in its way, had not the perch had a hook in its mouth, and another curving from its tail, the result of which unforeseen fact was an addi- tional piece of gluttony on our own part, — both parent and child being stewed in milk that same * Quoted in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. x. p. 461. THE PIKE. 135 evening, and eaten by ourself, and a few quiet members of the Society of Friends, to whose com- panionship (as. they to ours) we have been always much attached. Indeed, we have named an arti- ficial fly in honour of Dr. Martin Barry. Mr. Jesse has recorded that eight pike, weighing five pounds a-piece, consumed nearly eight hundred gudgeon in three weeks. Dr. Plot relates that a pike seized the head of a swan as she was feeding in Lord Gower's Canal at Trentham, with her neck beneath the water, and gorged so much of it that both creatures were killed, — for the servants, on perceiving something peculiar in the aspect or at- titude of the swan, took boat, and found not only the prey but the pike dead — he having caught an unconscious Tartar. Women have had their feet seized by these fish while washing clothes, and the present head keeper of Richmond Park was on one occasion washing his hands over the side of a boat in the great pond, when a pike made a dart at them, and he had but just time to withdraw into upper air, — a proof that people engaged in aquatic excur- sions should never wash their hands over the gun- wale, but rather keep them in their breeches pockets. There is a gentleman now residing at Weymouth in Surrey, who enjoys the privilege of showing the marks of a pikers teeth upon his arm. These were inflicted, however, not by aggression on the part of the dumb creature, but in self-defence, for the gentleman in question, while walking one day by the side of the River Wey, had endeavoured to seize a pike, which (as the event occurred before any suspicion of chartism in the country) we hold 136 ANGLING. he was hardly entitled to do, — but the reader may form his own opinion from the fact which Mr. Jesse gives, as follows, though in different words. The unarmed gentleman, walking as aforesaid, saw a large pike in a small creek. He immediately pulled off his coat, but not his , tucked up his shirt-sleeves, and stept into the water to intercept its return to the river, and hoping if he could get his hands beneath it, to throw it on the bank. During this attempt, the pike finding escape doubt- ful, and entreaty vain, seized the gentleman by the arm, and lacerated it pretty considerably. We think the fish was right. The most serviceable kind of person for hiring to frighten pike with his feet, is a stout Greenwich pensioner with two wooden legs. We shall now consider the other and more usual modes of capturing this great tyrant of the fresh waters. The pike is in season from May to February, and is most frequently angled for by trolling with a strong-topped rod. The hooks are generally fastened to a bit of brass wire for a few inches from the shaft, to prevent the line from being snapped. Different methods are used in angling for pike. Trolling, in the more limited sense of the word, signifies catching fish with the gorge-hook, which is composed of two, or what is called a double eel- hook ; live bait-fishing is practised with the aid of a floated line ; and snap-fishing consists in the use of large hooks, so baited as to enable the angler to strike the fish the moment he feels it bite, im- mediately after which he drags it nolens wlem ashore. THE PIKE. 137 Trolling for pike may be practised during the winter months, when trout fishing has ceased ; and the colder season of the year is in fact more convenient for the sport, owing to the decay or diminution of the weeds which usually surround their favourite haunts. With the exception of chub and dace, which bite pretty freely at the bottom all winter, scarcely any other fish can be relied upon for sport during the more inclement portion of the year. To bait a gorge-hook, take a baiting-needle, and hook the curved end to the loop of the gimp, to which the hook is tied. Then introduce the point of the needle into a dead bait^s mouth, and bring it out at the middle of the fork of the tail, by which means the piece of lead which covers the shank of the hook, and part of the connecting wire, will lie concealed in the in- terior of the bait : the shank will be in the inside of its mouth, and the barbs on the outside, turn- ing upwards. To keep the bait steady on the hook, fasten the tail part just above the fork to the gimp, with a silk or cotton thread ; or a neater method is, to pass the needle and thread 138 ANGLING. through the side of the bait, about half an inch above the tail, so as to encircle the gimp in the in- terior. The baits used vary in weight from one to four ounces, and the hooks must be proportioned to the size of the fish with which they are baited. The barbs of the hook ought not to project much beyond the sides of the mouth, because, as the pike generally seizes his prey cross-wise, and turns it before it is pouched or swallowed, if he feels the points of the hook he may cast it out entirely. In trolling for pike, it is advised to keep as far from the water as possible, and to commence casting close by the near shore, with the wind blowing from behind. When the water is clear and the weather bright, some prefer to fish against the wind. "• After trying closely," says Mr. Salter, " make your next throw further in the water, and draw and sink the baited hook, drawing it straight upwards near to the surface of the water, and also to right and left, searching carefully every foot of water ; and draw your bait with the stream, because you must know that jack and pike lay in wait for food with their heads and eyes pointing up the stream, to catch what may be coming down ; therefore experienced trollers fish a river or stream down, or obliquely across ; but the inconsiderate as fre- quently troll against the stream, which is improper, because they then draw their baited hook behind either jack or pike when they are stationary, in- stead of bringing it before his eyes and mouth to tempt him. Note. — Be particularly careful, in drawing up or taking the baited hook out of the THE PIKE. 139 water, not to do it too hastily, because you will find by experience that the jack and pike strike or seize your bait more frequently when you are drawing it upwards than when it is sinking. And also further observe, that when drawing your bait upwards, if you occasionally shake the rod, it will cause the bait to spin and twist about, which is very likely to attract either jack or pike."* These fish are partial to the bends of rivers and the bays of lakes, where the water is shallow, and abounding in weeds, reeds, water lilies, &c. In fishing with the gorge-hook, when the angler feels a run, he ought not to strike for several minutes after the fish has become stationary, lest he pull the bait away before it is fairly pouched. If a pike makes a very short run, then remains stationary for about a minute, and again makes one or two short runs, he is probably merely retiring to some quiet haunt before he swallows the bait ; but if, after remaining still for three or four minutes, he begins to shake the line and move about, the inference is that he has pouched the bait, and feels some an- noyance from the hook within, then such part of the line as has been slackened may be wound up, and the fish struck. It is an unsafe practice to lay down the rod during the interval between a run and the supposed pouching of the bait, because it not unfrequently happens that a heavy fish, when * The Trotter's Guide, by T. F. Salter, Lond. 1820. In the work above quoted will be found a full account of the necessary implements, and the most approved practice, in this department of the art. 140 ANGLING. he first feels the hooks in his interior, will make a sudden and most violent rush up the river or along the lake, and the line is either instantly broken, or is carried, together with both the rod and reel, for ever beyond the angler's reach. " When the pike cometh," says Colonel Venables, " you may see the water move, at least you may feel him ; then slack your line and give him length enough to run away to his hould, whither he will go directly, and there pouch it, ever beginning (as you may observe) with the head, swallowing that first. Thus let him lye untill you see the line move in the water, and then you may certainly conclude he hath pouched your bait, and rangeth about for more ; then with your trowl wind up your line till you think you have it almost streight, then with a smart jerk hook him, and make your pleasure to your con- tent."* The fresher and cleaner the bait is kept, whether for trolling, live-bait, or snap-fishing, the greater Is the chance of success. As pike, notwithstanding their usual voracity, are sometimes, as the anglers phrase it, more on the play than the feed, they will occasionally seize the bait across the body, and, instead of swallowing it, blow it from them repeatedly and then take no further notice of it. The skilful and wily angler must instantly convert his gorge into a snap, and strike him in the lips or jaws when he next at- * The Experienced Angler, p. 3G. Third edit. Lond. 1GG8. THE PIKE. 141 tempts such dangerous amusement. The dead snap may be made either with two or four hooks. Take about twelve inches of stout gimp, make a loop at one end, at the other tie a hook (size No. 2), and about an inch farther up the gimp tie another hook of the same di- mensions ; then pass the loop of the gimp into the gill of a dead bait-fish, and out at its mouth, and draw the gimp till the hook at the bottom comes just behind the back fin of the bait, and the point and barb are made to pierce slightly through its skin, which keeps the whole steady : now pass the ring of a drop-bead lead over the loop of the gimp, fix the lead inside the bait's mouth, and sew the mouth up. This will suffice for the snap with a couple of hooks. If the four-hooked snap is desired (and it is very kill- ing), take a piece of stout gimp about four inches long, and making a loop at one end, tie a couple of hooks of the same size, and in the same manner as those before described. After the first two and the lead are in their places, and previous to the sewing up of the mouth, pass the loop of the shorter gimp through the opposite gill, and out at the mouth of the bait ; then draw up the hooks till they occupy 142 ANGLING. a position corresponding to those of the other side : next pass the loop of the longer piece of gimp through that of the shorter, and pull all straight : finally, tie the two pieces of gimp together close to the fish's mouth, and sew the latter up. Some anglers prefer fishing for pike with a floated line and a live bait. When a single hook is used for this purpose, it is baited in one or other of the two following ways : Either pass the point and barb of the hook through the lips of the bait, towards the side of the mouth, or through beneath the base of the anterior portion of the dorsal fin. When a double hook is used, take a baiting-needle, hook its curved end into the loop of the gimp, and pass its point beneath the skin of the bait from behind the gills upwards in a sloping direction, bringing it out behind the extremity of the dorsal fin ; then draw the gimp till the bend of the hooks are brought to the place where the needle entered, and attach the loop to the trolling line. Unless a kind of snap-fishing is intended, the hooks for the above purpose should be of such a size as that neither the points nor the barbs project beyond either the shoulder or the belly of the bait. Snap-fishing is certainly a less scientific method of angling for pike than that with the gorge or live-bait ; for when the hooks are baited, the angler casts in search, draws, raises, and sinks his bait, until he feels a bite. He then strikes strongly and dras;s or throws his victim on shore ; for there is little fear of his tackle giving way, as that used in snap-fishing is of the largest and stoutest THE PIKE. 143 kind. " This hurried and unsportsman-like way of taking fish," it is observed in the Trotter's Guide, "can only please those who value the game more than the sport afforded by killing a jack or pike with tackle which gives the fish a chance of escaping, and excites the angler's skill and patience, mixed with a certain pleasing anxiety, and the reward of his hopes. Neither has the snap-fisher so good a chance of success, unless he angles in a pond or piece of water where the jack or pike are very numerous or half starved, and will hazard their lives for almost any thing that comes in their way. But in rivers where they are well fed, worth killing, and rather scarce, the coarse snap-tackle, large hooks, &c. generally alarm them. On the whole, I think it is two to one against the snap in most rivers ; and if there are many weeds in the water, the large hooks of the snap, by standing rank, are continually getting foul, damaging the bait, and causing much trouble and loss of time.'1 Pike sometimes rise at an artificial fly, especially in dark, windy days. The fly ought to be dressed upon a double hook, and composed of very gaudy materials. The head is formed of a little fur, some gold twist, and (if the angler's taste inclines that way, for it is probably a matter of indifference to the fish) two small black or blue beads for eyes- The body is framed rough, full, and round, the wings not parted, but made to stand upright on the back, with some small feathers continued down the back to the end of the tail, so that when finished they may exceed the length of the hook. The whole should be about the bulk of a wren. 144 ANGLING. During clear and calm weather in summer and autumn, pike take most freely about three in the afternoon : in winter they may be angled for with equal chances of success during the whole day : early in the morning and late in the evening are the periods best adapted for the spring, This fish is also angled for in a variety of ways by fixed or set lines, and also by trimmers, or lig- gers, as they are provincially called in some parts of England. Horsea Mere and Heigham Sound are two large pieces of water in the county of Nor- folk, not far from Yarmouth, noted for their pike, as partly immortalised in old CamdeiVs famous lines of lengthened sweetness long drawn out, — « Horsey Pike, None like." Mr. Yarrell received the following returns from a sporting gentleman, of four days' fishing with trimmers in these waters, in the month of March, 1834 : viz. on the llth at Heigham Sounds, 60 pike, weighing 280 pounds ; on the 13th at Horsea Mere, 89 pike, weighing 379 pounds ; on the 18th, again at Horsea Mere, 49 pike, weighing 213 pounds ; on the 1 9th, at Heigham Sounds, 58 pike, weighing 263 pounds : the four days sport pro- ducing 256 fish, weighing together 1135 pounds. As the mode of using trimmers in these extensive broads affords great diversion, and is rather pe- culiar, we shall here quote Mr. YarrelFs account of it. " I may state that the ligger or trimmer is a long cylindrical float, made of wood or cork, or THE PIKE. 145 rushes tied together at each end ; to the middle of this float a string is fixed, in length from eight to fifteen feet ; this string is wound round the float except two or three feet, when the trimmer is to be put into the water, and slightly fixed by a notch in the wood or cork, or by putting it between the ends of the rushes. The bait is fixed on the hook, and the hook fastened to the end of the pendent string, and the whole then dropped into the water. By this arrangement the bait floats at any required depth, which should have some reference to the temperature of the season, — pike swimming near the surface in fine warm weather, and deeper, when it is colder, but generally keeping near its peculiar haunts. When the bait is seized by a pike, the jerk looses the fastening, and the whole string un- winds,— the wood, cork, or rushes, floating at the top, indicating what has occurred. Floats of wood or cork are generally painted, to render them more distinctly visible on the water to the fishers, who pursue their amusement and the liggers in boats. Floats of rushes are preferred to others, as least calculated to excite suspicion in the fish.11* This is the only species of pike which o'ccurs in our fresh waters, or in those of other parts of Europe. It is one of the largest of lake or river fishes, and indeed, if the accounts which some writers have given of it be not greatly exaggerated, it occasionally attains a size not greatly inferior to the gigantic inhabitants of the ocean. Individuals * BRITISH FISHES, vol. i. p. 388. N 146 ANGLING, .are recorded as measuring from five to eight feet in length, and its age is said to be as remarkable as its dimensions. The most famous of all pikes is that mentioned by Gesner, who states that it was taken in Suabia in the year 1497 with a brass ring attached to it, on which was engraven in Greek the following sentence (which we doubt was never car- ried into execution) : — " I am the fish which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of^ the Governor of the Universe, Frederick the Second, the 5th of October, 1230." If it was 267 years of age, we see no particular reason why it should not (as is alleged) have weighed 350 pounds, and measured nineteen feet long. Pike, however, are occasionally taken in the English lakes above thirty pounds in weight, and Dr. Grierson mentions one killed in Loch Ken, in Galloway, which weighed 61 pounds. The colour of this fish in early life is of a greenish hue, but it afterwards becomes rather of a dusky olive brown upon the upper parts, marked on the sides with a lighter mottling of green and yellow, and passing into silvery white on the abdomen. We do not think highly of its flesh, although by many it is held in some esteem. THE SALMON. 147 THE SALMON.* This, in the angler's estimation, is the king of fishes, and it likewise occupies a most important place in the general good opinion of society — its merits as a living fish in cold water being only equalled by its excellence as a dead one in warm. It is a species of the greatest elegance of aspect, both in relation to form and colour ; but its ordi- nary attributes being well-known and duly appre- ciated by a discerning public, we shall not here dilate upon them, but proceed to a general sketch of its natural history, and a brief summary of cer- tain curious experimental observations and discove- ries, which have been recently made regarding its earlier conditions of existence, by our ingenious friend and correspondent, Mr. Shaw. The sea may be regarded as the genuine and best abode of this fine fish ; for so soon as it has Salmo solar ; Linn. ANGLING. entered the rivers, it begins to deteriorate in con- dition, the scales lose their brilliant silvery lustre, and the flesh becomes soft, pale, and insipid. It seems induced to return to the fresh waters by a natural instinct, wisely implanted for the purposes of reproduction — an instinct which enables it to stem the current of raging rivers, to ascend preci- pitous falls, and to pass over weirs and similar obstacles of human intervention, which no other or less impressive power could either vanquish or evade. This desire to discover a suitable situation in which to deposit their ova, seems the chief if not the only reason for salmon thus seeking the " rivers of water;" — the supposed torment produced by Caligus piscinus, or other marine adherents, having little or no influence on such migration. Barren fish are believed to continue their usual haunts along the coast — at least numerous fine salmon occur in salt water at all seasons, and a few fresh- run and well-conditioned fish may be found in almost every large river in each successive month throughout the year. It is during this instinctive seeking for the spawning beds, that the greater number are captured by stake-net, net and coble, cruive, weir, and the rod ; but it is only in the river, properly so called, that the sportsman can ply his vocation — almost all attempts to angle sal- mon from the sea, having hitherto proved abortive. Rivers and streams which flow from large capa- cious lakes, are sooner frequented by fresh-run spring salmon, than such as derive their sources from numerously divided mountain rills, — being THE SALMON. 1 49 clearer on account of their mud having been pre- viously deposited in the lap of their nursing mother, and warmer by reason of the receptive depth of that same parent. As the season advances, the number of ascending fish increases, and it has been observed that in this upland migration the proportion of early females somewhat exceeds that of males. Grilse, also, under which denomination are usually included such rather small or middle-sized individuals as are supposed to have never spawned, are said to ascend somewhat earlier than those of maturer age. Mr. Young of the Shin-fishery (Sutherlandshire), in- formed us some years ago, that the Shin salmon had begun to spawn earlier since they were pro- tected from the leister, and other modes of poach- ing. Most of the heavy earlier autumnal fish were formerly destroyed, and few spawned till Novem- ber; but during the then preceding season (1833) salmon were seen depositing their ova by the 14th of September. During our last visit to Sutherland, we found stout grilse (three pounds and upwards.) beginning to ascend the rivers by the 30th of May. They had indeed been observed as early as the 15th of that month. It is chiefly, however, towards autumn that the heavy fish find their way to the actual spawning beds, which are often formed either in the shallow tributaries of the larger rivers, or in the upland streams of these latter, at a great distance from the sea. Many fish, far advanced with spawn, are then destroyed by various means ; for it too often happens, that the " needy and the greedy" are 150 ANGLING. more desirous of immediate gain than regardful of the natural harvest of future years. At the same time, there is no need of being very sentimental on the subject. One man will hold up his hands in mournful reproval of another who has just killed a large female fish full of roe — he, the upholding re- prover, having himself- in the preceding spring, or even a few weeks before of that same melancholy autumn, killed his dozens of fair females — in better case no doubt — but which, had they been left to the guidance of " their own sweet will," would by that time have been precisely in the same condi- tion. The chief difference is, that a female fish, far advanced in roe, and likewise far advanced up the country, is less worth eating, and therefore, in one sense, less worth killing than another of slim- mer form and more silvery lustre, who is kept in active exercise by seals and porpoises at the river's mouth, or near that litigated line, " Where ocean trembles for her green domain," as, indeed, she has grievous cause to do, when a jury of her countrymen declare that she is not the sea.* Salmon generally delay entering the rivers in great numbers until the streams become somewhat * We here allude more particularly to the disputed case of the Cromarty stake-nets, — Hay Mackenzie and others v. Home, decided at Edinburgh against the defendant (the judicial factor), but wisely withdrawn by the suspenders on the eve of a new trial (bill of ex- ceptions having been allowed on appeal to the House of Lords) at Inverness, — where people have probably some notion of salt water. THE SALMON. 151 swollen by rains, — although in the larger rivers there may be said to be a limited daily rim. When the fresh or flood has fairly mingled with, or powerfully pervaded the estuaries, the run of fish is often very great, more especially if there has previously occurred a long continued course of dry weather. In the latter state of matters (before the fresh) these finny tribes will congregate at the mouths of rivers, as if deterred from entering by some principle of non-intrusion, and will not run the risk of a Sunday slap, however harmoniously called to do so by some powerful patron in the uplands. They are then seen, and not unfrequently taken, in vast numbers, but will not attempt to ascend, — know- ing either by the clearness of the intermingling river, or by some instinctive feeling, that the supply of water by no means equals the demand. But as the fresh approaches, an increased activity may be per- ceived among them, and mighty is then the waving of powerful pectorals, and of broad-finned swinging tails. This change is probably indicated instan- taneously by the perceptive power of the nostrils, and to this same sense may possibly be attributed the singular fact of the greater proportion of salmon returning to the very streams in which they had their birth. As soon as the fresh water suffices for their migratory purposes, they enter the river, and advance rapidly so long as the flood continues, — seldom resting in their course while the water con- tinues in any way discoloured. We have never ourselves had any means of ascertaining the rate at which salmon travel, — but Sir William Jardine 152 ANGLING. supposes it may be at a rate of from 10 to 25 miles a-day. In their more lengthened courses, however, up great navigable rivers, where the beds are deep and the interruptions infrequent, the rate at which this powerful species journeys is probably much more rapid. It has also been observed, that if danger appears to threaten them, or if they seek to avoid a sudden snare, the rapidity of their swim- ming is so great that the eye can scarcely follow them. " Experience has proved, that in tranquil lakes, they can go eight or ten leagues in an hour, and about twenty-four feet in a second. This rate of going would give 86,400 feet in an hour, and sup- pose the faculty of making the tour of the globe in some weeks."* We know as yet too little regarding the identity of foreign species with our own, to be able to deduce any general law from special facts derived from distant sources, — but if, as many suppose, our salmon reaches the slopes of the Cordilleras by means of the far flowing and magnificent Maragnon, then it must run a course of some 800 leagues. Bearing in mind, however, that the salmon is truly a northern fish, and also remembering those laws of geographical distribution which regulate, and with few exceptions circumscribe, the localities of living creatures, we think it more than likely that the South American salmon belongs to another species. We know, however, that our common kind (Salmo salar) although it does not occur in any part of the * Griffith's Animal Kingdom, x. 471. THE SALMON. J 53 great basin of the Mediterranean, makes its way by the Elbe into Bohemia, and through the Loire as far as the environs of Puy, in the ancient Velay. We also know that it works its way up the Rhine, and visits a portion of the rivers of Switzerland, although the irresistible torrent of the Falls of Schaffhausen— that " Hell of Waters" as Lord Byron would have called it — prevents its ingress to any portion of the basin of the great lake of Con- stance. But we feel less assured of its occurrence in the Persian Gulf, and greatly doubt the identity of the species known to inhabit the Caspian sea. Neither can we credit that it advances unrepelled by the gloomy terrors of a subterranean journey, — • " a dim and perilous way," — and that salmon from the Gulf, adorned by the fanciful Persians with rings of gold and silver, have been actually found within that self-containing sea. But, to return to our own sweet lakes and rivers, our still St. Maries, and our gentle Yarrows (alas ! alas ! A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain, Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height : Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain For kindred power departed from their sight ; While Tweed, best pleased in chaunting a blithe strain, Saddens his voice again, and yet again) : In our lower and clearer waters, salmon probably travel at a much slower rate than that above men- tioned, as they often rest from time to time by the way, — taking a regular lie in some chosen spot, 154 ANGLING. which they will return to daily so long as the river remains unfit for more continuous progress. Upon the least accession, however, to the water, either directly or from some swollen tributary, they are again on the alert, — and this increase is often felt by them several hours before the keenest or most experienced human eye can perceive a rise upon the river. Having ascended to a considerable height, they remain more stationary, or proceed more slowly with subsequent floods, till the spawn has attained a great increase of size. This increase (hyacinth-like) if not influenced by, is at least so connected with the commencement of the colder weather, as then to proceed at a more rapid rate. As the ova acquire their full development, the symmetry of the maternal form becomes disfigured, the size of the female seeming disproportionately large, and her paler portions losing the brightness of their silvery lustre, become dull and grey. The male too, as if oppressed by paternal anxiety, and conscious of the difficulty of providing suddenly for several hundred thousand children (hear this, ye parents who complain occasionally of having twins) grows lank and lean along the back, his muzzle lengthens, and the under jaw turning upwards in the form of a snout, is received into a kind of hollow in the nose, before the intermaxillary bone. The colours and markings become brown and red, rather than blue and silver, those of the head and gill- covers being particularly brilliant, and disposed in lines, almost like those that mark the species of the genus labrus. In this state the common salmon THE SALMON. 155 received from Baron Cuvier the erroneous name of Salmo hamatm, as if it were a distinct species,* — so difficult may it sometimes be for a philosopher in a great city to acquire the knowledge of a fact, elsewhere known familiarly from boyhood, by lonely herdsmen on ten thousand hills. How the Ettrick Shepherd would have marvelled that such a thing could be ! Yet James Hogg himself was not seldom a marvellous man in his narrations. To proceed. In this full breeding dress the male and female seek some rippling ford or shallow stream, and commence to excavate a spawning trench or furrow. The usual statement or received opinion regarding this portion of their history is, that both sexes aid in the removal of the gravel, and that they chiefly use their heads or snouts, — the upturning of the under jaw in the male being in fact described by almost all authors as the very implement formed by nature for the special purpose. But (to digress again for a moment) writers on this, and innumerable other subjects, may be likened to a flock of sheep about to enter park or pasture ground. The way is by no means narrow, and there is much hallooing with stentorian lungs, while the arms of brawny butchers wave like wind mills, and shepherds0 dogs utter their short uneasy bark, with burning breath, fierce eyes, and fiery tongue ; but not a fleece of all that woolly mass will move an inch. Then all at once, for no ap- parent reason, — at least for none which did not * Regne Animal, t. ii. p. 303. 156 ANGLING. exist before, — one of their number springs at least a couple of yards into the buxom air, which proving no " fenced brazen wall" as it was deemed, admits him to pastures green, and instantaneously the whole flock, like a troop of voltigeurs, bolt boldly onwards, bound after bound, as if an earth- quake's mouth did gape beneath them. Now your " men wat writes" are just precisely animals of this description, barring (we fear and mourn), that their coats are far more thread bare, themselves more gaunt and grim, and their other habits rather those of fleecing than being fleeced. They for a time (and many times) compose confusedly some huddled statement, of which one portion knocks the other down, and the spread of knowledge looks • extremely thin, — till some one bolder or more desperate than the rest (or driven by fear or hunger), makes a sudden spring upwards into the world of imagination, where he invents a round unvarnished tale of circumstantial truth, — " Of truth severe, in fairy fiction dressed." Away go the others through that glorious gap; and the fond admiring public finding the stream of history so continuous, and concordant as Cruden on the point in question (whatever it may be), would just as soon " doubt that the stars are fire," as harbour the least misgiving as to what it sees in print. And so the matter is settled for a hundred years. But then comes a sturdy observer actually with his eyes open, and finds that if he chooses to use them he can see ; so he hies him to THE SALMON. 157 the wood (that Birken Shaw is sinewy, tough, and strong), cuts his rod, and laying about among the " contributors," he " whips the offending Adam out of them" in less than no time, — and stating the simple truth to the discomfited philosophers, he broadly illustrates the difference between what Wordsworth calls, " A Fact and an Imagination." To resume. Mr. Shaw of Drumlanrig informs us, that so far as his own observations go — and he in no way desires to gainsay the actual mews of others, — the trough or spawning bed is excavated by the female alone, and by means not of the snout, but of a peculiar action of the tail, by which she both removes the gravel, and replaces it over the eggs when these are laid.* The process of laying usually occupies three or four days, and the hatching of the ova is regulated in a great measure by the temperature of the season. In severe winters the principle of life is slowly developed. Thus Mr. Shaw found by experiment, that ova placed in a stream of spring water of the average temperature of 40°, exhibited the embryo fish (visible to the naked eye), by the end of the 60th day, and were hatched on the 108th day after impregnation. Ova deposited by the same parent on the same day in the river (the average tem- perature of which for eight weeks had not exceeded * We may here note that the same observation or rather inference had (unknown to Mr. Shaw) been made by Mr. Potts, in relation to the Tweed salmon, as quoted long ago in Pennant's British Zoology. That gentleman regarded the tail as the instrument by which the gravel is displaced, in consequence of his having frequently found that part rubbed or abraded, 158 ANGLING. 33°), did not produce visible young until the 90th day, and 131 days elapsed before their final hatch- ing. We shall return to the young in a few minutes, but must in the meantime look after the old fish, which, at this period, are often improvi- dently struck through with the leister in shallow waters ; and one of which, in a certain ^Esopian dialogue with a plaided poacher, who is supposed to have asked the transfixed salmon how he felt himself, replied with great and rather ready com- posure, " nane the better o' your spearin '." After the important process of spawning has been accomplished, both sexes are reduced to a state of remarkable emaciation. But ere long the lengthened snout, hooked jaws, and ruddy hues are modified or changed, — the old scales are cast — the silvery coating begins to shew itself — and the fish retire for a time to some quiet pool to regain their strength, and nourish their new attire. They finally re-descend to the sea by easy stages, where their former condition and brilliant lustre are soon restored — their strength invigorated — and all their functions so repaired and completed, as to enable them, ere long, to renew their visit to the flowing streams, again to multiply their race. So much for the old people. Let us now enquire a little after the children, whom we left a few pages back, wriggling their way into life, through nearly a foot of supercumbent gravel. If the reader is sleeping or inclined to sleep, — if, his chin upon his chest, he has allowed our work to fall upon the fender, he may let it lie if THE SALMON. 159 resting on the rug, but if its leaves are crumpling and curling with heat beneath the grate, mid sinful dust and ashes, we request that he will pick it up instanter, and place it where he may. If, again, he is actually awake, and listening steadily to our piscatorial pleadings, let him not start suddenly when we put to him the question, " what is a parr ?" This is the only interrogatory we ever had the honour to address to Lord Brougham, and we believe it is the first ever put to his Lordship, either by ourself or any body else, which he was unable to answer. We shall not, however, at present carry the question by salmon-peal into the House of Lords, but state the case as clearly as we can, and far more briefly than it ever was before. The answer is this, — Othello's occupation^ gone, — " There is no such fish as a parr." It is pleasant to see Sir William Jardine and Dr. Knox, Mr. Selby and Dr. Fleming, Mr. James Wilson (a brother of Professor Wilson's) and Dr. Richardson, not exactly puzzling their brains about this vexed question, for the question seemed quite happy, and so assuredly were they, good easy men, but resting satisfied in the assurance that they un- derstood its bearings in every possible point, and could "box the compass" on the subject, to the clear conviction of each rational being in the three kingdoms and the town of Berwick-upon- Tweed. But, as it is now known to the world in general, — and we hope admitted by themselves in particu- lar— that these gentlemen knew nothing at all about the matter, we may be here allowed to pass 1 60 ANGLING. from their opinions and report the actual facts as proved by Mr. Shaw. The experimental researches of this ingenious observer were carried on for a series of years, have now been frequently repeated with the same results, and may be perfectly relied upon, both for their accuracy and conclusiveness. He captured a pair of breeding salmon in the river Nith on the 27th January, by means of a large landing net, and removed them to a small trench previously formed along side the river. In this trench the deposition of the ova and the process of milting were effected by pressure, (as detailed by Mr. Shaw,*) and the impregnated spawn was carefully collected in a large earthen ware basin, and transferred to a streamlet, the feeder of a small pond, twenty-two feet in length by eighteen in breadth, and so pro- tected by pipes and gratings that no other fish could voluntarily enter it either by ascent or de- scent. The temperature of the streamlet at this time was 40°, that of the river water 36°. On the 2Jst March (54 days after the process above al- luded to), the embryo fishes were visible to the naked eye. On the 7th May (101 days), they had " burst their cerements," and were to be found among the shingle, the temperature of the water being at this time 43°, of the atmosphere 45°.-f- * Edinburgh New Phil. Jour, for January 1838. •f We have already mentioned that exclusion takes place at some- what variable periods, in accordance with the temperature of parti- cular seasons, the range of variation extending from three weeks to a month. THE SALMON. 161 The excluded fry continues to be nourished for some time by the remains of the yolk or vitelline portion of the ovum, which adheres to the fish for a considerable period, not being altogether absorbed till the lapse of several weeks.* A principal point regarding the corresponding fry which were hatched in the natural spawning beds of the river, was, no doubt, to watch for their alleged immediate or very speedy departure to the sea, but nothing of the kind could be eventually detected. Specimens taken from the pond on the 24th June (48 days old) measured only an inch, on the 7th July (two months old) an inch and a half, on the 7th September (four months old) two inches and a half, and on the 7th November (six months old) three inches and a quarter. Some slight variation was observable in size between the individuals in different ponds, but the whole had precisely the aspect and character of small parr (commonly so called), and did not differ from those in the natural beds of the river, except that the latter were of a darker colour, a difference to be accounted for by the water being less pure and translucent. -f- This agreement, of itself, went far to prove that naturalists, and all other observers, had erred in supposing that salmon fry (or smolts) performed their journey to the sea a few weeks * The period of this absorption also seems to vary with the tempe- rature and other circumstances, ranging from 27 to 50 days. •\" Mr. Shaw has observed, in reply to objections regarding his con- structed ponds, as possibly limiting the growth of his fry by affording an insufficient supply of food, that these ponds actually abound with all the ordinary insect food of young fishes. 162 ANGLING. after hatching, as they were now — in November 1837 — six months old, and exhibited no desire to change their quarters, either in pond or river. We think, then, that at this stage of the business, — setting the parr question, however interesting, altogether aside— Mr. Shaw proved the important fact, hitherto denied by naturalists, that young salmon do not proceed to the sea the same year in which they are hatched. During the winter months, the low temperature both of air and water, and the consequent deficiency of insect food, prevent almost all increase of growth. Thus a specimen (marked No. 6,) exhibited to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, was taken from the pond in the middle of February 1838 — it was then nine months old — but its dimensions scarcely differ from those of its predecessor of November. But another specimen, (marked No. 7,) taken from the pond on the 10th May, — by which time it was twelve months old — though it measured only 3f inches, was much improved in general condition, and had exchanged its dusky autumnal and winter coating for what may be called its summer aspect. It now corresponds, both in age and size, with those which, in the natural bed of the river, are called " May Parr," and it is these latter alone, — except the newly hatched fry lying concealed among the shingle, — which are found in the river after the early part of May, as about that period the two year olds (to be ere long described) have all migrated sea-wards. These May parr are to be regarded as identical with the " Pinks of the THE SALMON. 163 river Hodder," alluded to by Mr. Yarrell, and both are the produce of the preceding spring, instead of being, as usually supposed, only a few weeks old. They remain all summer and throughout the ensuing winter in the river, and are neither more nor less than those little fishes, commonly called parr, which afford the young (and sometimes elderly) angler so much amusement with the rod, throughout the months of August, Sep- tember, and October. At this stage of Mr. Shaw's proceedings, then, he proved that young salmon do not go down to the sea even in the spring of the first year after that in which they are hatched. We may here briefly notice a fact in the physi- cal history of the male parr, commented on by Mr. Shaw — though previously well known to other ob- servers— which if not an anomaly in nature, is at least " of a strange order." In the autumn of the second year they become fitted for generative pur- poses, and are soon after seen to associate with the adult female salmon. Specimen No. 8 of the Royal Society ""s collection is a characteristic ex- ample of the parr (usually so called). It was taken from the pond on 14th November 1838, being then 18 months old ; and at the same period all the males of Mr. Shawls different broods exhibited a matured sexual character in relation to the milt, although none of the females of the same age shewed any signs of roe. Those in the natural bed of the river manifested a corresponding character of maturity in the male, — of immaturity in the female. The great constitutional change which converts 164 ANGLING. an old or mature parr into a young or immature salmon, usually takes place in the month of April of the second season after that in which the fry was hatched. The Royal Society specimens, Nos. 10 and 11, beautifully illustrate this change. No. 10 was taken from the pond on the 5th of January 1839. It then measured 6 inches in length, and was 20 months old. It still exhibits all the ordi- nary characters of the parr, commonly so called. At this period No. 1] presented a corresponding appearance in all points ; but it was allowed to sur- vive till the 24th May, by which time it had com- pleted its second year. During the lapse of these additional four months, it gained only half an inch in length, but it cast off the livery of the parr, and assumed that of the salmon, — this remarkable change consisting chiefly in the following particulars. The black spots upon the opercles disappeared ; the pale coloured pectoral fins became deeply suffused by an inky hue at their extremities ; the broad perpendicular bars or blotches on the sides became effaced ; and the prevailing hues of dusky brown and yellowish white were converted into a dark bluish black upon the back, and into silvery white upon the lower sides and abdomen.* Various * Mr. Shaw has, moreover, observed, that when this striking change takes place in the external aspect of the fry, a marked alteration also occurs in their social habits : " while in the parr state, they shew no disposition to congregate, but each individual occupies a particular station in the ponds, and should any one quit his place with the view of occupying the station already possessed by another, the intruder is at once expelled with an apparent degree of violence. But so soon as the whole brood has perfected the migratory dress, they immedi- ately congregate into a shoal, and exhibit an anxious desire to effect THE SALMON. 165 other specimens exhibited to the Royal Society exemplify the same change, and some of these distinctly shew, as it were, the intermediate or transitionary state between the parr and smolt- The whole, however, belonged to broods which, as already mentioned, were the original produce of an adult male and female salmon, and so could not be otherwise than the natural young of these fishes. Mr. Shaw then, we may here observe, has proved two facts of the highest importance both in the na- tural and economical history of the species in ques- tion, 1st, That parr are the young of salmon, being convertible into smolts; and 2dly, That the main body, if not the whole of these smolts, do not proceed to the sea until the second spring after that in which they are hatched.* To state the matter shortly and syllogistically, we think we are entitled to say, in reference to the two specimens last alluded to : " These are young salmon, — one of these is a parr, — therefore the parr is the young of the salmon." But this neither our- self nor any body else, whether peer or peasant, their escape by scouring all over the ponds, leaping and sporting, and altogether displaying a vastly increased degree of activity." * Although Mr. Shaw could never perceive any of the river fry at- tain the migratory state till the second spring after that in which they were hatched, he informs us that one or two individuals of each of his own broods assumed that condition at the age of 12 months. This circumstance he is inclined to attribute to the higher tempera- ture of the spring water ponds having hastened the ordinary natural change : and he deems himself strongly supported in this opinion by the fact, that no similar instance of an early or premature change has occurred among other individuals reared in corresponding ponds sup- plied with water from a rivulet, the temperature of which throughout the year, ranges very equally with that of the river Nith. 166 ANGLING. could have alleged as a fact capable of demonstra- tion, without the tentative, long continued, and now perfectly conclusive experiments of Mr. Shaw.* The ingenious observer just named, has not only settled this disputed point to our own satisfaction, and consequently to that of the world in general, but has, moreover, carried on his practical researches to illustrate, if not explain, that singular peculiarity already alluded to, viz. the sexual maturity of the male parr. The frequent observance of this matu- rity, and of the association of parr and female adult salmon, suggested the idea of the following curious and successful experiment. In the month of Janu- ary, Mr. Shaw took a female salmon, weighing 14 Ibs., from her natural spawning-bed — from whence he also took a male parr, weighing 1^ oz. With the milt of the latter, he fecundated the ova of the former, and placing the spawn in the streamlet which feeds one of his ponds, he watched its growth, as he had that of the salmon spawn fecundated in the ordinary way, and found both the hatching and subsequent growth to correspond, in all points, with the usual on-goings of nature. These experiments were repeated with the same results during the winter of 1838, and the parrs (taken from the * In the present summary of the great parr question, we avail ourselves, in the first place, of our own exquisite knowledge of the subject ; secondly, of Mr. Shaw's earlier papers published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (July 1836 — January 1838), and of his more recent communication on the same subject, crowned by the Keith Testimonial (Transactions oftlio Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xiv. Part II.) ; and thirdly, of a learned and lucid exposition of the case in a late Number (CCXCIV.) of Blackicood's Edinburgh Magazine, very generally attributed to Lord John Russell. THE SALMON. 167 river) which had been used as males, were kept alive till spring, when they assumed the migratory dress of young salmon, " and no mistake." He then tried a corresponding experiment by impreg- nating the ova of three adult salmon taken from the river, with the milt of three parr bred in the confinement of the ponds, and the result was like- wise the same, both as to hatching and final growth; this fact, showing at the same time the constitu- tional strength of the pond-bred parents, and that they had not deteriorated, or been altered in their natural character and attributes, as by some sup- posed. The individuals used in these experiments are preserved in the Museum of the Royal Society, where any one interested may satisfy himself re- garding their identity with the so-called parr. But one of the most singular and conclusive cir- cumstances connected with these later experiments is this, that one of the male parrs so used (No. J 2), was itself produced between a preceding parr and a female adult salmon — in other words, it was what Naturalists — in the days of the supposed specific dis- tinction of the parr and salmon — would have called a hybrid or mule. Now, it is admitted by physiolo- gists, that the general rule in relation to these mixed productions from kinds not specifically the same, is, that they do not breed. Yet this male parr, originally produced from a parr and salmon, has itself become the parent of a numerous and healthy progeny of most promising fry. It had, in fact, been objected to Mr. Shaw's earlier experiments, that by a forced alliance between the parr and sal- 168 ANGLING. mon, he had not proved their identity, but only succeeded in producing a hybrid, — thus " peopling the isle with monsters." The brood, however, in no way differs from those produced under ordinary circumstances, as may be seen by an inspection of specimens marked B. Mr. Shaw has justly ob- served that if parr were actually a distinct species, the result of their attendance on the female salmon would produce universal and irremediable confusion among these migratory inhabitants of rivers, " from the circumstance of the male parrs in a breeding state occupying in great numbers the very centre of the salmon spawning-bed, while the female sal- mon herself is at the same instant pouring thousands of her ova into the very spot where they are thus genially congregated." But we fear we have been already too discursive and prolonged on these important points, and that our young pupils of the angle may, with truth, ac- cuse us of cruelty in thus so long keeping " the rod suspended." Proceed we then to a short notice of the salmon, viewed in relation to the practice of the angler's art. This fine fish delights in large and streaming rivers. It is not only a rapid but an early riser, and bites best from six in the morning till eleven in the forenoon, and from three in the afternoon till sunset. A moderate breeze is of ad- vantage ; and the best months are March, April, May, and June. The salmon is justly regarded by the angler as the king of fish ; and when we con- sider that they occasionally measure four feet in length, and weigh upwards of 70 pounds, we may THE SALMON. 169 conceive how difficult a capture and how valuable a prize they sometimes prove. In relation to the size of salmon, we may here observe that Pennant makes mention of one which weighed 74 pounds ; and although we now regard, with something akin to wonder, a fish which weighs even the half of that amount, there is no doubt that not many years ago, salmon of 40 pounds were much more frequent than in these degenerate days. The absence of salmon of the largest class from many of our Scotch rivers, where they formerly abounded, is in fact owing to the injudicious per- fection of our fisheries, which occasions the constant capture of the species in the state of gilse, or other even earlier condition ; and the chances are, by consequence, greatly against any individual escap- ing the various dangers by which it is environed, for such a succession of years as is likely to admit of its attaining to its full dimensions. The destruc- O tion by poachers in the higher parts of the rivers, of the large enfeebled Jcelts^ or fish which have com- pleted their spawning operations, is also extremely prejudicial ; for these individuals — almost utterly useless as food at the time alluded to — would, if allowed to descend to the salubrious sea, ere long revisit their native streams, greatly increased in size, and full of health and vigour. The season of 1835, was more than usually pro- ductive of large salmon. One was killed weighing above 50 pounds, at the mouth of the Leven in Dumbartonshire. A notice appeared in the news- papers of one that weighed 55 pounds. Mr. Yar- p 170 ANGLING. rell had occasion to see two fish varying from 38 to 40 pounds each. But we believe the largest salmon ever known, was that which came into the posses- sion of Mr. Groves, fishmonger, Bond Street, which weighed 83 pounds. It was a female, comparatively short for its weight, but of unusual depth and thickness. Its flesh was finely coloured, and of high flavour. The largest we ever heard of as having been killed in Scotland with the rod, was that men- tioned by Mr. Lascelles. It weighed 54^ pounds. The most successful bait, as well as the most agreeable in the usage, is the artificial fly. This is alleged to be made in imitation both of dragonflies and butterflies of various kinds ; but the principles which we have already endeavoured to establish at the commencement of this article, make" it unneces- sary to describe the so-called natural species, which in fact do not exist. Even those who most warmly advocate the necessity of imitating existing insects in the formation of their lures, admit that the sal- mon is so capricious as frequently to rise at an artificial fly which bears no resemblance to any known form of insect life. The following are the descriptions of six artificial flies which have been found very successful in rais- ing salmon. See Salmon-flies, Plate 1st. Fig. 1. is recommended as a spring-fly, and is composed of the following materials : — Wings of the dark mot- tled brown or blackish feather of a turkey ; body of orange camlet mixed with a little mohair ; and a dusky red or bright brown cock's hackle, plucked from the back where the fibres are longest, for the lithog- Nicli THE SALMON. 171 so-called legs. The hook should be of the same size as represented in the plate ; and it has been ob- served that all large salmon-flies should be dressed upon double gut, and that the silk in dressing be brought beyond the shank of the hook, and wrapped four or five times round the gut, so that it may not be speedily cut by the sharpness of the steel.* This same fly, dressed with the wings of a somewhat brighter shade, and with the addition of a little gold wire or twist wrapped round the body at equal distances, will also serve for a more advanced sea- son of the year. Fig. 2. is of smaller size, and may sometimes be dressed upon very strong single gut. Any feather of a coppery or dingy yellow colour, if not too coarse in the fibres, will be suit- able for the wings ; the body is of lemon-coloured mohair, mixed with a small portion of light-brown fur or camlet, with a pale dusky ginger hackle over the whole. The chief object to be attended to in dressing this fly, is to produce that uniform hue, devoid of gaudy colouring, from which it has re- ceived the name of the Quaker-fly. It must not, however, be confounded with the Martyn barry, which is a smaller fly for trouts. Of Fig. 4. (Sal- mon-flies, Plate II.) the wings are made from the plumes of a cormorant, or from the mottled feathers of a dark mallard ; the body is of dark sable, ribbed with gold wire, over which a dusky red hackle is thickly wound ; the mottled feathers of a drake are used for the tail, and, previous to fastening off, * Bainbridge's Fly-Fisher's Guide, p. 96. THE SALMON. 1 75 motion the sooner he becomes exhausted. When he begins to show his side, and exhibits other unequivocal symptoms of exhaustion, a favourable landing-place should be looked for ; and, when the proper time arrives, which can only be learned by the (sometimes dearly bought) lessons of experi- ence, then is he to be drawn by degrees to the bank or shore, and secured either by means of the gaff, or a firm grasp above the tail. When feeding, salmon are usually found at the foot of a strong stream terminating in an eddy or whirlpool. " And first," says our father Walton, " you shall observe that usually he stays not long in a place, as trouts will, but, as I said, covets still to go nearer the spring head; and that he does not, as the trout and many other fish, lie near the water side or bank, or roots of trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, and usually in the middle, and near the ground, and that there you are to fish for him ; and that he is to be caught as the trout is, with a worm, a minnow, which some call a penk, or with a fly." Salmon are often killed in lochs, but they are seldom then in good condition, being as " hard run up," as the Honourable Captain , E.N. (who, by the bye, forgot to return the trifling sum he did us the honour to borrow at ,) though cer- tainly possessed of less Marine Assurance. Yet it is a fine and pleasant thing to kill a salmon in a loch, as the angler seldom expects it, and is probably only armed with common trout tackle, so that he must quickly summon to his aid in that 1 76 ANGLING. encounter whatever store he holds of coolness, courage, and dexterity. The sight of a large sil- very salmon is indeed a spectacle sufficing any where to excite our unfeigned admiration, but when seen suddenly springing from out the bosom of a lonesome loch, it comes upon us like a glad sur- prise. We know several lochs in Scotland, and in these several sandy spits of bottom — excuse our peculiar phraseology — where we would engage to kill several salmon any day during several months of the year, but there are several people whom we don't wish to know of this, and therefore we won't here mention the subject more particularly at pre- sent to our angling friends either (as several lawvers say,) "conjunctly or severally." When the river water is either too much dis- coloured for the use of the artificial fly, or, running into the opposite extreme, becomes in dry weather too clear and bright, salmon may be successfully angled for with the worm. The worm is also an approved bait in cold or wintry weather, when fish don't care to rise towards the surface. In these cases trolling tackle is sometimes used. In trolling with minnow, or other small fish, the foot lengths ought to be about three yards long, and furnished with one or two swivels, to prevent the line from twisting, as well as to enable the bait to play freely. A lead or shot proportioned to the strength of the stream should be fastened to the line, about a foot above the bait. The top of the rod should be stiffer than that used for fly fishing; and, when the hook is baited, it ought THE SALMON. 177 to be thrown first across, and then drawn up the stream. But why prolong our precepts, — for what know- ledge can a man acquire of this or any other glo- rious art by reading ? Or what will book-learning avail when one comes not only to " speak o' loupin" ow'r a linn," but actually to do it, or lose his fish, which has already done it ; — and see ! on either side how thick a skreen of rocks and tangled brush- wood ! Where be your rules, Oh angler, cut and dry, when a man begins to change his mind — and wishes to change his direction — 'mid some delusive ford of unknown depth, when giant trees are vehe- mently stooping, — the howling winds above, — be- neath, "the hell of waters ?" Can a Christian learn to skate by the fire-side ? Can a sailor be taught to leap a five-barred gate on board of ship, or avoid saddle-sickness when on actual horse-back, by study- ing either " Riding made Easy," or a treatise on tanning? Can a landsman escape sea-sickness when at sea, by acquiring a knowledge of Clerk's " Naval Tactics " on shore ? Can an ass become a philosopher by reading an Encyclopaedia both by day and night ? Can a philosopher cease to be an ass by not reading it either by night or day \ Never ! Never ! Never ! * In sad and simple truth, the writing of a book on almost any subject is what J. Gr. L. would not inelegantly call " humbug." Then why do you write one yourself? enquires our gentle and con- * Never! P.D. Q 1 78 ANGLING. si derate reader. Just for one or other of the many- reasons which induced yourself to do so — for we know you write — retorts the author. Pleasure, pride, poverty, happiness, hunger, anger, disdain, contempt, candour, fear, love, hatred, hope, know- ledge, malice, misery, dissimulation, philanthropy, philoprogenitiveness, conceit, arrogance, ignorance, — these are a few of the many fertile sources from which the things called hooks, — " of the making of which there is no end," — are ever flowing. We say it in shame, sorrow, and contrition, — we never yet met a man who had not written one or more books, and do not expect ever to meet with so per- fect a human being on this side the grave. We once for a few brief hours in early life, deemed that we had done so, even on this " dim spot" which men call earth. We were returning about twenty years ago by the Carlisle mail from Clovenford, after a toilsome, but delightful and productive day in Tweed's crystalline streams. The evening had closed with many a murky frown, the night was dark and boisterous, and in the course of our home- ward journey we could scarcely distinguish by the " ineffectual fire" of Ostler's lantern, as it flickered on the trickling rain-bespattered windows, a bulky fellow-traveller, who kindly talked to us alternately of trouts and trees, and withal in such a racy na- tural way, that we rubbed our hands with joy, and cried internally eureka, here is a man who never wrote a book. Our impression on this point grew stronger and stronger each succeeding mile, and' when at length reaching " our own romantic town," THE SALMON. 179 we sprung out beneath the glare of lamps upon the glistening pavement, quite delighted by the novelty of our previous situation, and holding up our arm to aid the descent of our unlettered friend, — Reader, —it was Sir Walter Scott ! We here present a few fishing lines spun by that ingenious angler, Mr. Thomas Tod Stoddart. They relate to a branch of the subject on which we dare not enter, except " in numerous verse," as no man could withstand the accusation of being both a proser and a poacher. THE LEISTER SONG. Flashes the blood-red gleam Over the midnight slaughter, Wild shadows haunt the stream, Dark forms glance o'er the water. It is the Leisterer's cry ! A Salmon, ho ! oho ! In scales of light, the creature bright, Is glimmering below. Murmurs the low cascade, The tall trees stand so saintly, Under their quiet shade The river whispers faintly. It is the Leisterer's cry ! The Salmon, ho ! oho ! A shining path the water hath Behind the shape of snow. Glances the shining spear, From harmless hands unheeded ; On, in its swift career, The dream-like fish hath speeded. It is the Leisterer's cry ! The Salmon, ho ! oho ! Along its wake the torches break, And waver to and fro. 1 80 ANGLING. Wildly the eager band Closes its fatal numbers : Across its glistering sand The wizard water slumbers. It is the Leisterer's cry ! The Salmon, ho ! oho ! And lightening like, the white prongs strike The jaded fish below. Rises the cheering shout, Over the rapid slaughter ; The gleaming torches flout The old oak shadow'd water. It is the Leisterer's cry ! The Salmon, ho ! oho ! Calmly it lies, and gasps, and dies Upon the moss bank low. THE BULL-TROUT.* This is another great migratory species, well known in many of our larger rivers, but not so easy to identify with any of the continental kinds. It is thicker in proportion to its length than the sal- mon, the fins are more muscular, especially the tail, and the latter organ is square, or even slightly con- vex, or rounded terminally, instead of being forked or semi-lunar, as in so many fishes. The terminal portions of the pectoral fins are also rather of a dusky hue, than of that more decided blackish tint, which characterises those parts in true salmon. The head is proportionally larger than that of the salmon ; the teeth are longer and stronger, and the inferior posterior angle of the opercular cover more elongated backwards. The general colour is a green- ish grey above, the lower parts silvery white ; the * Salmo erioac, Linn. Yar. THE BULL-TROUT. 181 body above the lateral line being thickly covered with large cruciform black spots. The flesh of this species is of a yellowish tint, and has a coarse flavour, except in the young state. It is consequently less esteemed, as a marketable commodity, than any other of the sea-going kinds. In the breeding sea- son it assumes a much blacker tint than the salmon, and wants much of the red markings. All the un- der parts, jaws, and cheeks, become blotched with deep blackish gray. The hook of the under jaw of the male does not assume so elongated a form as that of the salmon. The old fish begin to enter the rivers about the end of July, and are believed to deposit their spawn and return to the sea about a month earlier than the last named species. This is a very powerful fish in all its states, and feeds voraciously without much discrimination. Sir William Jardine informs us, that when hooked it springs repeatedly out of the water, and runs — to use an angler's phrase — with extraordinary vigour to free itself from barb and line. The river Tweed and its tributaries are among the principal localities of the bull-trout, although it occurs occasionally in the Solway, and in the rivers of the west and north of Scotland. It weighs in the adult state from 15 to 25 pounds. The last we saw was killed by net- ting near Peebles, and weighed upwards of 17 pounds. Such British authors as have applied the continental name of Salmo hucho to any native species, have no doubt intended by so doing to de- signate (however erroneously) the fish in question. The Bull-trout, in the adult state, is characte- 182 ANGLING. ristically called the Round-tail in the river Annan, and — in common, however, with those of other species — its young are there and elsewhere named Sea-trout. The Warkworth and Coquet trout of Durham and Northumberland are the young of this species, as are likewise the Whitlings of the Tweed, or Berwick Trout of the London markets. But the whitlings of all our Scotch rivers are not necessarily the young of the Bull-trout, in as far as provincial names are sometimes differently applied. We have no doubt, however, that the Norway salmon of our Sutherlandshire, and other northern fisheries, is identical with the Bull-trout, that is, with Salmo eriox, in the adult state, although some regard that fish as a variety of the common Salmo solar. Ac- cording to Dr. Parnell, the young of the Bull-trout, when about nine inches in length, has the tail still acutely forked ; but he observes, that when the fish attains the length of twenty inches, the middle ray of the tail is more than half the extent of the longest ray of that organ, whereas the same ray in the salmon is never half as long as the most length- ened caudal ray at any age whatever. This in- genious author has carefully described the nume- rous varieties of the Bull-trout in his excellent paper " On the Fishes of the Firth of Forth."* The mode of angling for this great migratory trout is the same as that pursued for salmon. In truth it is seldom killed in the adult state except by accident, while the angler is casting for that * Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, vol. Tii. THE BULL-TROUT. 183 more prized species. We shall briefly notice its young (as part and parcel of those gregarious and nomadian tribes called Sea-trout) in the course of the following article. THE SALMON-TROUT.* In a commercial and culinary point of view this is the most important species we possess, next to the salmon. It bears a closer resemblance to that fish than to the bull-trout in its general form and aspect, but its teeth are more numerous, both on the jaws, tongue, and vomer. The tail is not so much forked at the same age as that of the salmon, but it becomes square, as in that species, in the course of adolescence. According to Mr. Yarrell, the size and surface of the tail are also less than those of the salmon, owing to the comparative short- ness of the caudal rays. Many authors and anglers are of opinion that there are two kinds of salmon-trout (Salmo trutta and albus of Naturalists), and to these, in their various states, the names of sea-trout, white- trout, herling, whitling, phinock, &c. have been applied. The characters of each, however, are extremely difficult to determine and define ; and we agree with Sir William Jardine and Mr. Yarrell, that both will be found to merge eventually into one, — entitled to the name of Salmo trutta. These fish are very abundant in broad Scotland (one of the narrowest countries ever known), and are taken in * Salmo trutta, Linn. — Salmo alliis, Flem. ? 184 ANGLING. great quantities in the Solway and its tributaries, and in most of the rivers which debouche along the western and northern coasts of Scotland. In the first named locality they bear the names of sea- trout, herling, and whitling, — in the latter of white-trout, sea-trout, and finnock; and when transported to the larger market towns receive the additional name of salmon-trout. Thus we may easily conceive the great and almost irremediable confusion which may take place, and has actually now arisen, from the use or abuse of these pro- vincial names. The Fordwich trout of Izaak Walton, described as yielding " rare good meat," pertains to our present species. On the south-east coast of Scotland and its rivers, these marine species (whether one or more) appear to be less abundant than along our western shores. This may, however, possibly arise from the larger meshes of the netting there employed. The Edinburgh market is chiefly supplied from the estuaries of the Forth and Tay. In its largest state, or as known under the specific appellation of trutta, the sea or salmon- trout enters the rivers towards the end of May, with a weight varying from one to five or six pounds. The form and dimensions are extremely elegant, — possessing all the symmetrical grace of the salmon. The head is small; the back ex- tremely broad when viewed from above ; the tail slightly forked, and wide at the extreme points ; the general colour is above greenish, inclining to bluish-gray, the lower parts being of the clearest THE SALMON-TROUT. 185 silvery-white ; and above the lateral line the body is spotted, as in the bull-trout, with large deep-black spots, but fewer in number. The flesh is pink, of high and delicate flavour, and much esteemed for the table. In this respect it ranks next to the salmon, — and by some is even more esteemed than that princely species. In its smaller or younger state (8. albus?) it presents very nearly the same appearance in respect to proportion, form, and colour. They approach in this state the mouths of rivers towards the end of July, and immediately enter the fresh waters, often in immense profusion, — so that an angler may capture almost any quantity without the exercise of great skill. Sir William Jardine re- gards them as even " annoying from their quantity" when the angler is casting for salmon. We cannot say we ever felt the annoyance greatly, although with a friend we have sometimes killed above seventy in a few hours, in addition to a salmon or two, and several gilse. In some of our northern counties they are not commercially accounted for by their hired captors, that is, they are regarded as among the perquisites of the kayners or taxmen of the salmon fisheries, — surely a regardless and ill-advised regulation, seeing that from 500 to 1000 are sometimes taken at a single hawl of the sweep- net. They are also taken in equal numbers in the Solway in houses of the stake-nets, covered for the purpose with a mesh of smaller size than usual, and are afterwards carried off" in cart loads to the country markets. The flesh of this smaller fish 186 ANGLING. — whether species, or variety, or differing only in age — is also pink and delicately flavoured. The colours of both these sorts, during the spawning season, is a changeable grayish-black, slightly tinted in the males with brown ; and at this period they offer a most marked contrast in their lank and darkened forms, to the symmetrical shape and stainless silvery lustre of their earlier condition. Their flesh, too, becomes white and insipid, and the whole fish assumes an unwhole- some aspect. Yet it is in this condition, as Dr. Parnell has observed, that while returning to the sea, in the months of January and February, numbers are taken in the Forth above Stirling, as well as in the Tay, and sent to the Edinburgh market, where, under the name of Lammasmen, they are sold at the rate of about sevenpence per pound. The largest specimen of the salmon-trout which has come to our knowledge is that men- tioned by Mr. Yarrell. It was a female in fine condition, in the possession of Mr. Groves of Bond Street (noted in June 1 831), and weighed seven- teen pounds. An obscure cloud still overhangs the history of all these migratory trouts, from the time of their first departure from our rivers in early life, till their first return towards them. We have no doubt; however, that like their great congener the salmon, they remain much longer in the fresh waters than is usually supposed. Mr. Shaw lately laid before the Royal Society a brood of young sea-trout (Salmo trutta, we presume) produced by mechanical THE SALMON-TROUT. 187 impregnation, and exhibiting five successive stages, from the day of hatching to the age of nine months. At the age of six months they bear a less marked resemblance to the young of the true salmon in the parr state than might have been supposed, and as they increase in age and dimensions the likeness becomes still slighter. But on comparing them with the young of common river trout, the resem- blance is close and striking. Their general form and outline are less elegant than those of the young of salmon. How long this not easily definable species re- mains in the sea during its first excursion there, we are not prepared to say, for it seems that it too, either attains a rapid increase during a short sojourn in ocean's green domains, or " hid in some vacant interlunar cave," rests for a longer period than supposed in deep translucent waters. Dr. Parnell supposes, that those hatched in March and April of one season, remain in the river till May or June of that which follows, by which time they have assumed a silvery lustre, and attained a length of from six to eight inches ; that they then descend to the sea, where they remain about two months, and afterwards ascend the rivers as her- lings or whitlings (Salmo albus of Dr. Fleming), in which state they measure from ten to twelve inches.* By this time the back has become of a * It is probable that these fish are older than Dr. Parnell sup- poses, although it has not yet been proved that (like salmon smolts) the majority do not attain their silvery lustre till the termination of the second year. Mr. Shaw suspects they migrate when about the ] 88 ANGLING. dusky blackish blue, and the sides silvery, marked with a few obscure dark spots, principally about the region of the pectorals. Some examples are without spots, and present a fine silvery aspect, from which character the name of whitling has no doubt been derived. The lateral bands or blotches are no longer visible — the opercular spot is almost obliterated — the pectorals become dusky, or, in many specimens, assume a warmer and more glow- ing tint, — from whence has doubtless been derived the frequent appellation of orange-fin, by which certain sea-trout are known in several rivers. The tail still continues deeply forked. The silvery lustre of these comparatively young fish soon, however, becomes tarnished in the river waters — the spots appear more obvious, and the ventral and anal fins assume a dusky aspect. Whether they breed at this time or not, is a doubtful and dis- puted point. Many practical fishermen believe they do, but our own observations confirm those of Dr. Parnell as to the insufficiency of roe in fishes of the size in question. They, however, descend again to the sea in January and February with " a lean and hungry look," and their flesh both pale and tasteless. Having recruited themselves in the sea, and regained their symmetry and silvery lustre, they revisit us again in June, and enter the mouths of rivers with an average length of eighteen age of twelve or fourteen months. Whether those which come up from the sea in July and August, are the same individuals which had gone down to it for the first time in May preceding, is a point cer- tainly of great importance to ascertain, but which has hitherto been always rather inferred than demonstrated. THE SALMON-TROUT. 189 inches, — being then entitled to the name of Salmo trutta. This view of the case, we think, accounts, in a reasonable way, for a fact well known to all anglers of sea-trout, and which has puzzled many thought- ful enquirers : viz. that late in spring, and early in summer, the prevailing sea-trout are of larger size than the numerous hordes which seek to enter our river waters during the mid-summer season. Were they all fish of the same year, of course the latest to arrive would be the largest in dimensions ; but as the fact is otherwise, we can only infer, that the more advanced in age are the first to make their appearance: for we cannot reconcile ourselves to the belief, that there are two species of the kind in ques- tion. At the same time, it is important to bear in -mind, that the young of the true salmon in its adolescent state, with numerous promising cadets of the bull-trout family, may occasionally congregate with large travelling parties of sea-trout, properly so called, and thus tend to throw a net of com- plexity over the precise determination of the subject, which it is by no means easy to unravel. Yet we have met with hundreds of people who declared they understood it well in all it bearings, and could explain it perfectly in five minutes. We looked our watch one fine morning about thirty years ago, our cloud of witnesses, in spite of electricity, never came to the point, and we have greatly doubted the perfection of any branch of knowledge ever since. We agree with our friend Lord Mel- bourne that your cut and dry gentlemen, who understand all things, are good for nothing. 190 ANGLING. So far then, as we can at present perceive, we think that there are nourished in the streams, rivers, estuaries, and ocean waters, of this our blessed country, three distinct species of migratory or anadromous salmonidae, — viz. the salmon (Salmo salar), the bull-trout (Salmo eriox), and the salmon- trout (Salmo truttd) ; that the young of these are frequently confounded with each other both by- unskilful and scientific observers ; and that many most important points in their earlier, or rather intermediate history, are still obscure as night. We think that the adolescent salmon will be found distinguished by a decided tendency to blackness on the terminal portion of its pectoral fins, — that the youthful bull-trout will be recognised by the duller dusky hue of that same portion, while the aspiring sea-trout, when in proper order, will be naturally characterised by pectorals of a warmer or more orange Claude- Lorraine-like hue. All these migratory species are distinguished after a certain period, when in good condition, from such as inhabit the fresh waters only, by the clear but deep greenish or greyish blue of the upper sur- face of their bodies, and the brilliant silvery white of the under portions. The more minute or macu- lar markings can scarcely be insisted on, because our finny friends, though they resemble leopards in activity, differ from these fair creatures in this, — that they can change their spots. We used the freedom to ask the enthusiastic angler sometime ago if he were fast asleep. We regret to say that we have since ascertained the fact of his having been so ever since we named the name THE SALMON-TROUT. 191 of Parr, — which, however, so far from being a watch- word in our own family, is rather an assured signal for somnolescence, and therefore we in no way take amiss, that a respected stranger should gently repose himself over a subject, which we have seen so often veil in dim suffusion far brighter eyes than his. Not that we mean to say there is anything defective in his vision, quite the reverse, for we rather like odd looking eyes, — but are simply de- sirous to mention that we forgive his yielding thus to nature's " soft restorer." He may now uplift his lids, and look about him for a moment. When an angler finds himself standing a few hundred yards, or it may be even several miles, from the mouth of a beautiful and sparkling river, — haply not on golden sands, nor yet on grassy bank, but half way up between the knees and haunches in the water — when every other cast of his far stretching gossamer causes a sudden " bright up- rising" into the sunny air of some quick springing fish, with deep cerulean back, and breast like that of Leper " white as snow," — what matters it to him by what specific name it once was known to Ray, Artedi, Pennant, or Linnaeus I It is a sea trout, and let him thank his stars, and think no more of albus or of trutta. It may weigh only three quar- ters of a pound, or it may weigh a pound and a half, or two pounds, — seldom any less, and still more seldom more, — but if he kills a couple of dozen, let him therewith be content, for better anglers, many a time and oft, have fished farther and fared worse. Large and rather gaudy flies, dressed much upon 192 ANGLING. the same principle as those used for salmon, but of smaller size, are best adapted for the capture of sea-trout. A mallard wing, with red hackle, a twist of gold, and an orange tuft at the tail, will be found very toothy. So also will a large Green Mantle or a red or yellow Professor of considerable size, and rather roughly hackled.* A salmon fly already described (see Plate II. fig. 6), when some- what reduced in size and fulness, is greatly to their taste. The same indeed may be said of fig. 3, Plate I. THE COMMOM TROUT. "f" This beautiful and well-known fish is very gene- rally distributed over the whole of the northern and temperate parts of Europe, — being found in * We distinctly hear one of our readers somewhat angrily ex- claiming, that we now refer to flies, possibly invented by ourself or family, of which he knows nothing, and which we have not yet described. " We own the soft impeachment," but let him just wait patiently,— patience is an angler's virtue, — and we shall satisfy him in a few minutes. We happen to be more than usually occupied this morning, having many matters of great moment to attend to. + Salmofario, Linn. THE COMMON TROUT. 193 every burn and tarn, in every lake and river. It may also be described as one of the most pleasing in its external aspect, — for when newly drawn in "golden glory" from some translucent stream, it is a creature of exquisite beauty. The more is the pity it should so often fall a prey to the insidious arts of all-engrossing man. The variation of its tints, according to season and locality, is so great and multiform, that we need not here seek to make these colours known, — their general character being no doubt already familiar to all our readers. This species varies greatly in size as well as colour,- — in accordance probably with the nature and abundance of its food, the strength and depth of the river in which it occurs, and the physical properties of soil and climate. Fish indeed seem, more than most animals, to depend on peculiar and unappreciable circumstances for the full and charac- teristic development of their attributes ; and they consequently exhibit great contrariety of aspect among individuals of the same species. If a canal or reservoir, or any other great accumulation of water, is formed by the hand of man, where the hand of nature had from time immemorial recog- nised only some small and solitary streamlet, the lapse of a very few years produces large and heavy fish, where none but trouts of the most trifling size had eA7er been seen before. The writer of these observations kept a minnow little more than half an inch long in a glass tumbler for a period of two years, during which time there was no per- ceptible increase in its dimensions. Had it con- 194 ANGLING. tinued in its native stream, subjected to the fatten- ing influence of a continuous flow of water, and a consequent increase in the quantity and variety of its food, its cubic dimensions would probably have been 20 times greater ; yet it must have attained, prior to the lapse of a couple of years, to the usual period of the adult state. In regard to birds and quadrupeds, the individuals of the same species are seldom distinguishable from each other by any peculiarities either of form or colour, at least within the limits of a restricted locality; but it appears to be otherwise with several species of fish, more especially trouts. Those of the Clyde and Tweed, although both rivers draw their primary sources almost from the same mountain, present a constant and well-marked difference in their ex- ternal aspect; and a corresponding dissimilarity exists among the characteristic varieties of almost every river and lake in Scotland ; " which I tell you," says Walton, " that you may the better be- lieve 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 the 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, ' Every thing is beautiful in his season.1 " One main cause of dissimilarity in the external character and aspect of different trouts, is un- THE COMMON TROUT. 195 doubtedly the variation of their food ; and it seems certain that such as feed on shells and Gammarince (screws, or fresh water shrimps, as they are some- times called), are of the most beautiful tints, the finest flavour, and possess the most decided pink- ness in their flesh. Of these the Devock-water trouts of Westmoreland, are among the best we have either caught or cooked, although several other lakes in the north of England produce trout of such fine quality that they are not seldom passed off upon the uninitiated as charr. Our own Loch Leven, too — of which the barren isle, and now dis- mantled castle, are famous in history as the prison place of the beautiful Queen Mary, — has long been noted for its breed of trouts. These, however, were said to have deteriorated considerably some- time ago in their general flavour and condition, owing, it is reported, to the partial drainage of the Loch having destroyed their best feeding ground, by exposing to the destructive influence of the atmosphere those rich and numerous beds of small aquatic shells, which formed the principal portion of their food. Further north, as in Sutherlandshire, the im- mense multitudes of lochs produce a corresponding abundance and variety of trout. Of these, how- ever, only a few are of very superior quality, — but these few may assuredly vie with those of any country in the world. We may mention more particularly Loch Craggie, near Lairg, as full of fine trout. They seem, however, shy, except in spring and early summer. We first fished it with 196 ANGLING. a friend in July, and were sadly disappointed by killing on an average only one and a half each, that is three between us per diem ; but during another trip in the first week of June, each rod captured about a couple of dozen a day of the finest fish, weighing from three quarters of a pound to a pound and a half and two pounds a-piece. Only one weighed two pounds and a half. This Loch Craggie rests in a granitic basin. Its waters are extremely clear, though here and there we ob- served beds of Potamogeton in deepish places. The greater part of the north side is covered by rocks and stones, among which large fish lie. All the natives here are strong active creatures, with well formed smallish heads, and something of a salmon like aspect. Sir William Jardine tried them by trolling with a small trout as bait, but had only a single run. Yet we had proof on dissection of their piscivorous propensities, — several having the re- mains of small fishes in their interior. De gutsibus non disputandum est. In Loch Doulay, a little lower down, and somewhat nearer Lairg, we killed a beautiful trout in the evening, during a dead calm, which — we mean the fish — weighed three pounds. It was brilliantly coloured, finely shaped, exquisitely conditioned — how it simmered soon after sunset ! — and altogether formed the most perfect picture of a trout we ever saw. As our pannier was already full, we laid it down on one of those little grassy basket-looking tufts of green, so often found — like islands in Oasis — to beautify the gravelly shores of desolate mountain lochs, and proceeded on our way THE COMMON TROUT. 197 rejoicing. Returning ere long with half a dozen more — but none so fine — we perceived our travel- ling companion — our much loved fishing friend — lying on that lone shore to all appearance dead I We were rather shocked at this upon the whole, knowing that he had left a wife and family, but on a near approach, we found that he was neither dead nor sleeping, but entranced — " awed, delighted, and amazed," — by our glorious three-pounder, and had laid himself down enamoured to gaze upon her beauties. We ate her, however, that same night to supper. The bottom of Loch Doulay is in some places soft and mossy, and on one side there is a deep marsh, bordered next the water by a regiment of reeds, and sheltering numerous gulls, grebes, and other water-fowl. Its fish, in general, are some- what inferior to those of the clearer waters of Loch Craggie. In another neighbouring piece of water (Loch- ta-Craig), — we beg its pardon if we cannot spell aright, we had a shocking bad pen when we wrote our notes, — the trout are still more inferior both in size and -condition. Its waters are dark and mossy, and the bottom is in many places covered with mud. Loch Bearnoch, in the same vicinity, is re- ported to contain fish of four pounds. We put them to the test act — a green mantle and red pro- fessor— but they were non-conformists, rose rather sulkily, and none exceeded a pound and a half. Though not so fine as the Loch Craggies, they are fair fish to look upon, and of great strength for their size. The spots on some specimens were large and 198 ANGLING. black. The bottom of this Loch is extremely stony, and for the most part not more than two or three feet deep for a distance of twenty or thirty yards from the shore. The surrounding rocks, like those of Lochs Craggie, Doulay, and ta-Craig, are gra- nitic, but the waters of the first are by far the most translucent. This Loch Bearnoch is a small and solitary water — a wild and dreary spot ; but the distant view of the great mountain of Ben-y-Clibrich bestows upon it a character of desolate grandeur. Wild geese breed upon its islands. We must allude to still another loch in Suther- land, called Loch Mallochorie, on the Benmore range, above Inch-in-damff, which is also remarkable for its trout. These are of a rather reserved disposi- tion, at least are somewhat shy of the artificial fly, — and indeed till Dr. Greville and ourselves tried them in the summer of 1833, they had not been known to rise to that lure, — but take pretty well by trolling, and range in weight from three-fourths of a pound to two and a half or three pounds. They are beautifully, but not brilliantly coloured — at least we did not find them so in either June or July — but are very thick and finely formed, and so remarkably fat, as almost to fall of their own accord from the frying-pan into the fire. They are about the best eating trout we have yet met with here below. We noticed that the lake, wrhich is high among the hills, abounded with the aforesaid Gammarinoe — screws or fresh water shrimps. But as we intend to write a separate work one of these days —dedicated to the Secretary of the Royal Society of THE COMMON TROUT. 199 Edinburgh — on the culinary character of the diffe- rent kinds or varieties of trouts in Scotland, we shall here say nothing more on this department of our subject.* The characteristic habits of trouts, their usual haunts, their favourite feeding grounds, their chosen resting-places, cannot be described by human pen, so infinite is the variety of circumstances by which they are surrounded. Could any man detail these haunts and habits amply and accurately, his work would be the best and greatest of cosmographies, Malte Brun and Balbi would " babble of green fields" no more for ever, and the " Angler's Guide " would depict the universal world, — for what portion of the habitable globe worth speaking of, does not abound in fertile flowing rivers, or, in the form of broad expanded lakes, spreads not its glittering bosom to the sun 2 Why does the " teeming West," year after year, through trackless woods or over vast * We cordially agree with, and have great pleasure in recording — the more so as we had previously published the same facts ourselves, — the following observations of M. Agassiz on the colouring and food of fishes. " It is during the autumn, and at the time of the greatest cold, that is to say, in October, November, December, and January, that their tints are most brilliant, and the colours become more vivid by the accumulation of a great quantity of coloured pigments. We might almost say, that these fishes bedeck themselves in a nuptial garment as do birds. The colour of their flesh varies according to the nature of their aliment. This family of fishes feeds especially upon the larvae of aquatic insects, and on small Crustacea. It is in the waters which contain the most of these last that the most beauti- ful salmon-trout are found. Direct experiments, which were made in lakes, have proved to the author's satisfaction, that the intensity of the colour of the flesh arises from the greater or smaller quantity of Gammarince which they have devoured." — Fourth Report of the British Association, p. 620. 200 ANGLING. savannahs, admit of such increase of man's do- minion ? Why, in those far distant and once for- lornest regions, does now the desert blossom as the rose, and boatman, builder, butcher, teacher, tailor, work busily, eat heartily, sleep soundly, and multiply rapidly 2 All owing to the sway of those most picturesque of agents, wood and water (but chiefly water), and their united power of aid- ing man in all his efforts, minute or mighty, from the boiling of a potatoe to the steaming of the British Queen. Why is so much of the nearer continent, the " arida nutrix leonum," so barren and unpeopled ? Just for want, amid its desolate sands, of a certain fair proportion of translucent water, in which the dim-eyed camel, heavy laden, may cool his burning breath, or dusty pilgrim plunge with greater gladness than did ever miser into heaps of gold. As philanthropists upon a large scale, we do indeed rejoice in the announcement which lately appeared, of a " Royal African Auxiliary Artesian Spring Company" (Capital, =£500,000,000), which, with judicious manage- ment in the details, will assuredly effect a great revolution in the social, moral, physical, political, and commercial condition, alike of tawny moor and woolly headed negro, and be of no disad- vantage to the secretary of that same Association, whoever he may be. Our talk is now of waters, from dancing rill to slow and solemn stream, — Not hurled precipitous from steep to steep, Lingering no more 'mid flower-enamelled lands THE COMMON TROUT. 201 And blooming thickets, nor by rocky bands Held, — but in radiant progress toward the deep, Where mightiest rivers into powerless sleep Sink, and forget their nature. So let us adorn and dignify our unpretending volume, by ever and anon inserting radiant gems by great artificers, and then the weary pannier- laden angler, who has haply surmounted some lofty barrier in search of mountain tarn, or the sweet waters of a neighbouring vale, unbuckling his finny burden, may seat himself complacently amid the storm-swept herbage, and gaze around, awe-struck, but yet with grateful and rejoicing heart, on all the " dread magnificence " which there surrounds him. When he has drawn his breath a little, let him read the following lines.* * We know not what degree of plagiaristic immorality we commit in thus pilfering entire poems from any writer whatsoever, but, so far as concerns the case in question, we try to hold ourselves excused alike to author and publisher, by the fact of our having purchased for ourself or friends five copies of the latest collected edition of Wordsworth's works within the last two years, besides having pre- viously procured (by honest payment) three former English editions, and a Parisian one by Galignani (this last a present from J. D. F.) in a single volume. We have thus, including a few spare copies of the " Excursion" (one in 4to. and two in small 8vo.), and of " Yarrow re- visited, and other Poems," which we caught up before they were collected, possessed ourselves (or benignly rendered others the glad possessors), of about 44 volumes of Wordsworth's poetry. Therefore, in thus drawing from " other orbs " our golden light, we hope not to offend. Indeed, we never heard of the God of Day complaining that— " The moon doth with delight, Look round her when the heavens are bare." And yet, who doubts that she, in common with ourselves, must ever shine only by borrowed lustre? We therefore hope, that we, the " inferior creatures," may shelter ourselves unblamed beneath " Ry- 202 ANGLING. TO * On her first Ascent to the Summit of Helvellyn. Inmate of a mountain dwelling, Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed, From the watch-towers of Helvellyn, Awed, delighted, and amazed ! Potent was the spell that bound thee, Not unwilling to obey, For blue Ether's arms flung round thee, Stilled the pantings of dismay. Lo ! the dwindled woods and meadows ! What a vast abyss is there ! Lo ! the clouds, the solemn shadows, And the glistenings, — heavenly fair! And a record of commotion Which a thousand ridges yield ; Ridge, and gulf, and distant ocean, Gleaming like a silver shield ! Take thy flight ! possess, inherit Alps or Andes — they are thine ! With the morning's roseate spirit, Sweep their length of snowy line ; Or survey the bright dominions In the gorgeous colours drest, Flung from off the purple pinions, Evening spreads throughout the west ! Thine are all the choral fountains Warbling in each sparry vault, Of the untrodden lunar mountains ; Listen to their songs ! or halt, dalian Laurels," — stealing from " Poesy," (a word we like not well,) a borrowed tongue, — " To cheer the itinerant on whom she pours Her spirit, while he crosses lonely moors, Or, musing, sits forsaken lochs along." THE COMMON TROUT. 203 To Niphate's top invited, Whither spiteful Satan steered ; Or descend where the ark alighted, When the green earth re-appeared ; For the power of hills is on thee, As was witnessed through thine eye J Then, when old Helvellyn won thee, To confess their majesty ! But let us descend again to the low countries, and take a nearer and more detailed view of certain branches of our subject. In regard to the size to which the common trout attains, we think that " the constants of nature" have been in no way ascertained, so far as this species is concerned. A weight ranging from a few ounces to about a pound, includes the great majo- rity of those found in the generality of rivers. Many lakes swarm with small trout, but usually the average size in lakes exceeds that of rivers. A river trout of a pound weight is a goodly fish, one of two pounds a very fine one, of three pounds ex- tremely rare. Yet there are many recorded cases of river-trout weighing eight, ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, even twenty-five pounds weight ; but we have little doubt that bull-trout of these dimensions have not seldom been mistaken for the genuine fresh water species. We do not here desire to dwell upon that painful portion of the character of certain anglers — of whom the present reader is not one — which induces them to magnify their captures both in size and number. We have met with many men who never killed a trout under a pound weight, even by accident, and 204 ANGLING. who never angle for an hour or two before break- fast or after lunch — this is their easy tooth-pick way of talking, — without luring to destruction seve- ral dozens. We know that we dined lately in com- pany— a person can't always choose his friend's companions, — with one of these same boasters, who told the frequent tale of weight and number. Of the latter, we were somewhat careless, but curious exceedingly about the former, because, for a special purpose, we were anxious to obtain that very night a well-sized trout. We asked if he had brought his finny captures home beneath the roof where we were then rejoicing? — the answer, " to be sure." Feeling ourselves at ease, and receiving an approv- ing nod from our hospitable host — himself a single- minded man, as full of truth as two eggs, — we rang the bell, and desired an agreeable looking footman " to please to pick" from the different panniers a few of the largest t routs which had been captured during that blessed day. He speedily returned, bearing a splendid assiette of China's purest clay, — our friend is rather proud of his eastern ware, and his old housekeeper knows that failing well, — with slant-eyed Mandarins, their pipe in hand, small footed damsels, drinking from cups that cheer but not inebriate, bridges high in air, and swallows and summer-houses mingling together in the clouds ; but for the " take of trouts," Oh! what a falling off was there, my countrymen ! Where were the couple- of-pounders now ? There were a few of three- quarters of a pound (and pretty fish these same) ascertained, however, by a red thread through their THE COMMON TROUT. 205 gills, to have been caught by a highly respectable and very round-faced clergyman of the Episcopal persuasion, who — silent though not unseen — was sipping some light summer tipple, and holding the long slender stalk of a rather large yet delicate thin-edged glass so neatly in his small white hand, that we had known for several hours he was an angler, — thus proving how a naturalist, by the ob- servance of a seemingly unimportant attribute of the outer-man, may throw a flood of light upon his prevailing character and disposition. It did not appear, however, that the braggart himself could identify with certainty a single parr, of which a few had been slily placed upon the platter by some ob- servant valet down below, probably as a memento to him whose bark had been so much more powerful than his barb. Now, we give him due warning, that if he does not mend his manners, restrict his imagination, and study the specific weight, dimen- sions, and amount, of the few small fishes he may chance to capture, we shall publish his name in the Gazette, with no delay and less remorse, as an en- sample to all who cast a stain upon our innocent craft, by having thus — " Forgone the home delight of constant truth, And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth." The largest trout are usually killed by trolling or spinning with parr, or minnow, and it is a matter of great science to raise and hook, and of equal skill to " play" and complete the capture, of one of these giant fishes. We never ourself had the good for- 206 ANGLING. tune to slay a very large fresh water trout of the common kind, but we certainly think that those of lakes and rivers are stronger and more tenacious of life when under the angler's hands, than sea-trout of the same dimensions. The feelings of these two beings, when hooked, differ somewhat in the same degree as did those of Wellington and Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. A gentleman (?) having stated his belief that the Duke was " surprised" on that momentous occasion, Professor Wilson (the author of fly first, p. 232,) replied with his ac- customed readiness, that the Duke might indeed have been " surprised," but assuredly Napoleon was " astonished" So it is with the subjects of our present somewhat discursive exposition. A sea- trout, when first he feels the barb, is so exceedingly astonished, that he flings himself repeatedly head foremost into the air, and flounders about upon or near the surface of the water, in a most lively ver- satile manner (as the delighted angler deems), but then he soon succumbs to fate, and after a few more impetuous bounds, and fine vivacious unsuccessful splashes, a well sized fish may very speedily be drawn to land. But your river trout, even your simple two-pounder, though much surprised, is also greatly enraged, and will make repeated runs in every direction rather than run ashore; he will take perhaps a single spring or so, as if to ascer- tain exactly what has happened ; he will dig his way towards " the bottom of the nether world;" he will try the diagonal dimensions of a deep and sombre pool ; he will go helter skelter down a rocky THE COMMON TROUT. 207 rapid ; he will run continuously along a lengthened smooth expanse, and make a mighty flourish with his tail at the end of it ; he will seek to hide him- self (and break the line even of the imperial guard) among the tangled roots of old fantastic trees, or will sneak beneath gloomy overhanging banks, like a " demm'd demp disagreeable body" ashamed of being seen. It may easily be conceived that with this pertinacity and determination of character, the capture of a large river-trout is by no means easy, and it often happens, that in spite of all the angler's art, the said trout is seen waddling away with his tongue in one cheek and the fly in the other, while the line, like a " knotless thread," comes sneaking back towards its master, who takes off his hat, not so much to salute the departing fish, as to make room for the sudden elongation of his own ears, which are sure to assert their prerogative on such occasions. But let him replace his beaver and not despond, nor utter a single hasty or discordant word (whether it begin with