produces a vibrating sensation from the wrist to the shoulder, when you must instantly strike. Editor.

Barbel fishing, like some other individual angling, finds devotees, who pursue it with singular ardour. There are barbel fishers who appear to feel little amusement in taking any other fish. Such often become great adepts; they understand the time, seasons, bait, and localities best suited to the purpose, so as to be seldom disappointed in their sport. Their patience is inexhaustible, their indifference to loss of time great, and the distances they travel to visit their favourite haunts, shews the anxiety which the hope of success creates in them. It is well known that cold weather, even the slightest frost puts an entire stop to this sport, but rain following a long drought stirs up these fish to take their usual baits with astonishing avidity. Editor.

Three of the largest barbel ever caught at Hampton, by angling, were taken by a gentleman, of Burlington-street. They weighed thirtynine pounds; the general weight of barbel is from two to eighteen pounds. Daniel's Sports.

The editor of these anecdotes caught, at Shepperton, one morning before breakfast, twentyeight pounds of barbel, one of which lot weighed

ten pounds, the bait used was graves; the late Mr. Marriot, a celebrated barbel fisher, was in the same boat, and used lob-worms, but did not hook a fish.

Leeches dried are a good bait for barbel, and on immersion in the water, they are sufficiently restored to their natural appearance to be used with success. Some authors assert that barbel have been caught, from six to twelve feet long. Dr. Bloch.

A barbel angler has, however, occasion to exult at the sport which he finds. August 9, 1807, at one of the deeps near Shepperton, which had been prepared by baiting over night, a party of four gentlemen, named Emes, Atkinson, Hall, and Moore, separated into two boats, and began fishing between ten and eleven o'clock. In about five hours they caught the following quantity:

:

Total 87 fish weighing 150 lbs.

Pickering's Edition of Walton.

Mr. Warren, a perfumer, of Mary-le-bone-street, angled in Walton Deeps, and before noon caught 280 lbs. of large-sized barbel.

Brookes' Art of Angling.

Mr. Waring's new mode of catching barbel, simply consists in providing yourself with good tackle, and a large quantity of clay; when you find the fish shy, put a ball of this clay, sufficiently heavy not to be carried away with the stream, about four or five inches above the hook, and leaving the bait to move about by the flow of the river, place the float rather above the water. When you have a bite, which is easily perceived, strike quickly. This way has enabled Mr. Waring to have good sport when his fellow anglers have entirely failed. Sporting Mag. June, 1835.

Stations for barbel fishing.-Barbel fishing has been, and always will be a favourite recreation for elderly anglers. Of all the waters the Thames is the best, from Kew upward. Though Putney bridge has afforded sport. Brentford Ait, and the adjoining island, which once bore the name of Barbel Island; Twickenham and Teddington; and wooden bridges, not stone; Walton, Hampton Court, and the Gallery-bridge deeps; Shepperton, &c. &c. are good stations. Great quantities of barbel are also taken about Lea-bridge; the potatoe hole; in Snowden's water; Hughes and Shurry's

water; Broxbourn bridge. Scorers, graves, lobworms, and gentles are the best baits, but all best at times. Ledger is the best method: some anglers use a piece of tobacco-pipe fixed on the line, in a similar manner to the lead, and cover the pipe with a ball of clay; the latter method I take to be the best, for when you strike a fish, you disengage your line from the weight of your ledger. New Sporting Mag. Sept. 1834.

Most extraordinary method of taking Barbel.Darcy, who kept a music-shop at Oxford,though very lusty, was an excellent swimmer; he used to dive after barbel into a deep hole near the four streams, a bathing-place well known to the Oxonians, and having remained under water a minute, he returned with a brace of barbel, one in each hand. The report that Darcy made, was, that many of these fish lay with their heads against the bank, in parallel lines, like horses, in their stalls. They were not disturbed at his approach, but allowed him to come close to them, and select the finest.

New Monthly Mag. 1820, Part II.

Barbel are taken in the Danube, of a much larger size than in our waters. After a dreadful carnage between the Turks and Austrians, on the banks of the Danube, barbel were found in it of such a vast size, and in such numbers, as to become a matter of record; and as their propensity

for human flesh was well known, it was attributed to the dead bodies thrown into the water.

Donovan, p. 29.

In the Volga they sometimes catch barbel from the length of four to five feet, and from thirty to forty lbs. in weight; in the Weser, from twelve to fifteen lbs. Pallas Voyage.

This fish is so generally known, that it needs little description. It, however, is interesting to the angler, by biting so freely. It is found in a gravelly bottom, with water not very deep. The best method to catch gudgeons, is with a paternoster line, and to move often. The rake to be used freely, the hook to be baited with red worms. Editor.

Mr. Pennant remarks, that the few gudgeons which are caught in the Kennet and Cole, are three times the weight of those found elsewhere. The largest ever heard of weighed half a pound; it was caught near Uxbridge.