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

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

PISCATOR.-The umber and grayling are thought, by some, to differ as the herring and pilchard do. But though they may do so in other nations, I think those in England differ nothing but in their names.1 Aldrovandus says, they be of a trout kind: and Gesner says, that in his country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. And in Italy, he is, in the month of May, so highly valued, that he is sold at a much higher rate than any other fish. The French, which call the chub "un villain," call the umber of the lake Leman, "un umble chevalier;" and they

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

value the umber or grayling so highly, that they say he feeds on gold; and say that many have been caught out of their famous river of Loire, out of whose bellies grains of gold have been often taken. And some think that he feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at his first taking out of the water; and they may think so with as good reason as we do, that our smelts smell like violets at their first being caught, which I think is a truth. Aldrovandus says, the salmon, the grayling, and trout, and all fish that live in clear and sharp streams, are made by their mother Nature of such exact shape, and pleasant colours, purposely to invite us to a joy and contentedness in feasting with her. Whether this is a truth or not, it is not my purpose to dispute: but it is certain, all that write of the umber, declare him to be very medicinable. And Gesner says that the fat of an umber, or grayling, being set, with a little honey, a day or two in the sun, in a little glass, is very excellent against redness, or swarthiness, or anything that breeds in the eyes. Salviani takes him to be called umber from his swift swimming or gliding out of sight, more like a shadow or a ghost than a fish. Much more might be said both of his smell and taste: but I shall only tell you that St. Ambrose, the glorious Bishop of Milan, who lived when the Church kept fasting-days, calls him the flower-fish, or flower of fishes; and that he was so far in love with him, that he would not let him pass without the honour of a long discourse. But I must, and pass on to, tell you how to take this dainty fish.

1 Hippolito Salviani, an Italian physician of the sixteenth century: he wrote a treatise "De Piscibus, cum eorum figuris ;" and died at Rome, 1572, aged 59.-H.

First note, that he grows not to the bigness of a trout," for the biggest of them do not usually exceed eighteen inches. He lives in such rivers as the trout does; and is usually taken with the same baits as the trout is, and after the same manner-for he will bite both at the minnow, or worm, or fly-though he bites not often at the minnow, and is very gamesome at the fly; and much simpler, and therefore bolder than a trout; for he will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise again. He has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers of a parakita, a strange outlandish bird; and he will rise at a fly not unlike a gnat, or a small moth, or indeed at most flies that are not too big. He is a fish that lurks close all winter; but is very pleasant and jolly after mid-April, and in May, and in the hot months. He is of a very fine shape; his flesh is white; his teeth, those little ones that he has, are in his throat, yet he has so tender a mouth that he is oftener lost after an angler has hooked him than any other fish. Though there be many of these fishes in the delicate river Dove, and in Trent, and some other smaller rivers, as that which runs by Salisbury; yet he is not so general a fish as the trout, nor to me so good to eat or to angle for.3 And so I shall

2

1 There are three very distinct sizes of grayling. The pink, so called from its not much exceeding the minnow in size. The skett, or skate, which average about five to the pound; and the half-pound fish, which then takes the name of "grayling." Pennant mentions, as a rare instance, a grayling, caught near Ludlow, which weighed four pounds, six ounces; and was more than eighteen inches in length. A member of the Houghton Fishing Club sent me one about the same weight, and I had two sent me which weighed three pounds and a half each.-ED. "Go to

2 The following is one of the great secrets in grayling-fishing.

a deep dead part of the river, never mind if there is no wind, or if the sun is hot; use the finest gut you can procure, and two flies; and when you have thrown your line as light as gossamer, let it sink for eight or ten inches. You will not see a rise, but a slight curl in the water, which by a little practice you will understand quite as well, and when you strike you will have the pleasure of finding a good fish, or more, tugging away at the end of your line instead of a skett grayling. Though the best anglers prefer the fly, it must be confessed that the largest grayling are killed by the maggot and grasshopper. The most destructive way with both is to sink and draw."-ED. (from his "Angler's Rambles.")

3 The haunts of the grayling are so nearly the same with those of the trout, that in fishing for either, you may, in many rivers, catch both. They spawn about the beginning of April; when they lie, mostly, in sharp

take my leave of him: and now come to some observations of the salmon, and how to catch him.

streams. Baits for the grayling are chiefly the same as those for the trout, except the minnow, which he will not take so freely. He will also take gentles very eagerly. When you fish for him with a fly you can hardly use one too small. The grayling is much more apt to rise than descend ; therefore, when you angle for him, alone, and not for the trout,float, with the bait from six to nine inches from the bottom, rather than the running-line.

-use a

The grayling is found in great plenty in many rivers in the north, particularly the Humber.. And in the Wye, which runs through Herefordshire and Monmouthshire into the Severn, I have taken with an artificial fly, very large ones; as also great numbers of a small, but excellent fish, of the trout kind, called a Last-spring; of which, somewhat will be said in a subsequent note. They are not easily to be got at without a boat, or wading; for which reason, those of that country use a thing they call a THORRICLE,

or TRUCKLE in some places it is called a coble, from the Latin "corbula," a little basket it is a basket shaped like the half of a walnut's shell, but shallower in propor-tion, and covered on the outside with a horse'-hide; it has a bench in the middle, and will just hold one person; and is so light that the countrymen will hang it on their heads like a hood,-and, so, travel, with a small paddle which serves for a stick, till they come to a river; and then they launch it, and step in there is great difficulty in getting into one of those truckles, for the instant you touch it with your

foot it flies from you: and when you are in, the least inclination of the body oversets it. It is very diverting to see how upright a man is forced to sit in these vessels, and to mark with what state and solemnity he draws up the stone which serves for an anchor, when he would remove, and lets it down again however, it is a sort of navigation that I would wish our piscatory disciple never to attempt.-H.