'made in the lid that you may change your water often, which will keep them alive a long while; your dead ones in a tin box made for that purpose, with bran, which dries up the moisture that hangs about them, and contributes to preserve them longer. Angling for the pike at the snap is to let him run a little, and then to strike him the contrary way from whence he runs, with two strong jerks in this method you must use a double spring hook, which is to be had at any of the shops, and your tackle must be very strong. The snap is best used in March, when they are spawning, at which time they are sick and lose their stomach; though they will then take your bait, but immediately throw it out of their mouths: therefore striking them when they first take the bait is the only way to be even with them, which is called angling at snap. The way to bait the snap-hook is thus: make a hole with a sharp penknife in the side of the bait-fish; then put the gimp that is fastened to your hook into it, and draw it out at the mouth, till the spring hook comes to the place where the incision was made ; which when it is, put it into the belly of the fish, then have a piece of lead about the size of a horse-bean, though of an oval form, with a hole through it from end to end large enough for the gimp to go through; draw it down to the fish's mouth, then put it in it, and sew it up. Or you may make an incision in the skin only, and draw the gimp out at the bone behind the gills, then enter it again under the gills, and bring it out at the mouth, which I think is the best method, because the hook has only the skin to hinder its fixing in the pike, whereas in the first method it must pierce through the flesh and skin before.it

can touch him, and if it is not very large may hook him so slightly as to spoil all your sport. There used to be a way also of taking a pike called huxing; but as the use of trimmers is now so generally known, it would be needless for me to insist further upon it.

I shall now communicate to the reader a method which I have taken more pikes and jacks with than any other way. The hook which you must use is to be like the first hook that I have mentioned, with this exception only, that the lead of a conical figure must be taken away: then, before you fix the swivel on the bottom of the line, put on a cork float that will swim a gudgeon, then put on your swivel, and fix your hook and gimp to it put a swan-shot on your gimp, to make your float cock a little, and of such a weight, that when the hook is baited with the gudgeon it may do so properly. Your gudgeons must be kept alive in a tin kettle: take one and stick the hook either through his upper lip or back-fin, and throw him into the likely haunts before-mentioned, swimming at mid-water. When the pike takes it, let him run a little, as at the snap, and then strike him. In this method of pike-fishing you may take three kinds of fish, viz. pikes, perches, and chubs.

Rules to be observed in trowling: September and October are the best months for trowling, because the weeds are then rotten, and the fishes are fat with the summer's feed. March is the best for the snap, because, as I have said before, they then spawn and are sick, and therefore never bite freely. A large bait entices the pike to take it the most, but a small one takes him with greater certainty. Always, both at trowl and snap, cut away one of the fins, close at the fins of the bait-fish, and

another at the vent on the contrary side, which makes it play better.

Let no weeds hang on your bait, for if they do the pike will not touch it; and always throw it into the water gently.

When you have a bite, and the fish goes down the stream, it is commonly a small one; but on the contrary, if he sails slowly upward with the bait, it is a sign of a good one: great fishes in general bite more calmly than small ones; for the small ones snatch and run away with the bait without any deliberation, but old fishes are more wary.

Be careful how you take a pike out of the water, for his bite is venemous; therefore if you have not a landing-net, put your finger and thumb into his eyes, and take him out that way.

Both at trowl and snap, always have one or more swivels on the line, which will prevent its kenking, and make it play better in the water.

Whenever you find your bait-fish water-sopt, change it directly. The hooks for this fish are

various.

THE PERCH.

The perch is bow-backed like a hog, and armed with stiff gristles, and his sides with dry, thick scales. He is a very bold biter, which appears by his daring to venture upon one of his own kind with more courage than even the ravenous luce. He seldom grows above two feet long, spawns once a year, either in February or March, and bites best in the latter part of the spring.. His haunts are chiefly in streams not very deep, under hollow banks, a gravelly bottom, and at the turning of an eddy. If the weather is cool and cloudy, and the

water a little ruffled, he will bite all day long, especially from eight till ten in the morning, and from three till six in the evening. If there are

thirty or forty of them in a hole, they may be all caught of one standing: they are not like the solitary pike, but love to accompany one another, and swim in shoals, as all fishes that have scales are observed to do. His baits are minnows, little frogs, or brandling, if well scoured. When he bites, give him time enough, and you can hardly give him too much; for as he is not a leather-mouthed fish, without you do he will often break his hold. Angle for him, if you bait with a brandling, with an indifferent strong line, and gut at bottom, your hook No. 4, 5, or 6, and about five or six inches from the ground; but if you rove for him with a minnow or frog, which is a very pleasant way, then your line should be strong, and the hook armed with gimp, and the bait swimming at midwater, suspended by a cork-float. I, for my own part, always use my trowl, that in case a pike should take it, I may be prepared for him. Keep your minnows in a tin kettle, and when you bait with one, stick the hook through his upper lip or back fin. If you use the frog, stick it through the skin of his hind leg. These directions being carefully attended to, I dare ensure the angler success. The perch is much esteemed in Italy, especially when small: Gesner prefers the perch and pike before the trout or any fresh fish. The Germans say proverbially, More wholesome than a perch of the Rhine.

THE TENCH.

The tench, the fishes' physician, so called be.

cause its slime is said to be very healing to wounded fishes; and what is more strange, the voracious pike is so sensible of his sovereign virtue, that he will not hurt a tench, although he will seize any other fish of his own size that comes in his way; and when he or any other fishes are sick, they find relief by rubbing themselves against his body. He is a delicious fresh-water fish, has small scales, yet very large and smooth fins, a red circle about the eyes, and a little barb hanging at each corner of his mouth. His haunts are chiefly in ponds amongst weeds: he thrives very ill in clear waters, and covets to feed in foul ones; yet his flesh is nourishing and pleasant. They spawn the beginning of July: the proper time to angle for them is early and late in the months of May, June, the latter end of July, and in August. You must use a strong line with gut at bottom. The hook No. 2 or 3, and a quill float; the depth about two feet. He bites best at red-worms, if you dip them first in tar; at all sorts of pastes made up with strong-scented oils, and at one made with the inside of a roll and honey: also at cad-worms, lob-worms, flag-worms, gentles, marsh-worms, and soft-boiled breadgrain. Besides the river Stour in Dorsetshire, so particularly recommended for plenty of tench and eels, there is Brecknock mere, in Brecknockshire, being two miles in length and as much in breadth, full of perches, tenches, and eels.

N. B. One river tench is worth ten pond.

THE FLOUNDER.

The flounder may be fished for all day, either in swift streams or in the still deep, but best in the stream, in the months of April, May, June, and