up strong, or near the mouth of some river, when the eels nibble at the bait, they can be felt, give some little time before it is pulled up, which must be gently, until near the surface, and then hoist out quickly, the worsted sticking in the eels teeth, prevents their loosening themselves until the line is slackened by throwing them into the boat, or on the ground, so soon as they are disentangled, throw the bait in again; frequently great quantities are thus caught, especially of Grigs. Ee's are also to be snared in the same way as the Pike, and in the fens numbers are speared, by an instrument with three or four forks, or jagged teeth, which is struck at random into the mud.

Terms used by Anglers.explained.

Bawk, a knot in a hair or link.

Bed, hairs bed well when they twist kindly.

Bedding, the body of an artificial fly.

Break, a knot in the joint of a rod.

Chine a salmon, cut him up.

Cock, a float cocks when it swims perpendicular in the water.

Drag, an instrument to disentangle the line.

Drift, is a term when four or more Anglers are in company together, they are then called a drift.

Fin a chub, cut him up.

Frush a chub, dress him.
Gildard, the link of a line.

Gobbet a trout, cut him up.

Grabble, fishing on the grabble is when the line is sunk with a running plummet fast to the bottom, so that the hook link plays in the water

Hang a fish, the Angler is said to hang a fish, when he has fastened the hook in him.

Kink, a line kinks in trowling, when it is twisted between the top of the rod and the ring, Leash of fish, three.

Pouch, a pike pouches when he swallows the bait.

Prime, fish are said to prime when they leap out of the water.

Shoal, any great number of fish together.

Solay a bream, cut him up.

Splate a pike, cut him up.

Thrash, any thing which swims down the water, and incommodes the Angler.

Trouncheon an eel, cut him up.

Tusk a barbel, cut him up.

Veer your line, let it off the reel after striking.

Having thus amply stated the various modes of taking fish with the angle, it remains to say a few words, respecting Ponds for breeding and preserving them, and to briefly describe those Nets best adapted to catch fish, both in stagnant and running waters.

ONE

Fish-Ponds.

NE material point in the management of Fish, is, to be able to have them immediately when wanted; a second is, to have supplies to recruit the stock as it is diminished: this can never be effected without a certain order and method; and with that, nothing is more practicable.

The antients were so particular about their fish, and the ponds in which they were kept, that their value was astonishing; the fish in the ponds of Lucullus sold after his decease for three millions of sesterces, (£24,218. 15, O. sterling.) Caius Hirtius first introduced the keeping of Lampreys in stews, and lent Cæsar, during the time of hist triumph, six hundred of these fish, for which he would receive no equivalent in money, nor any other commodity, but conditioned the repayment to be by the same number and weight of Lampreys; his ponds and fish about his house, which was itself extremely small, were sold for one million more than the above sum, (£32,291. 13. 4.) To return to more modern times, and when an Heir does not find such a resource from his Ancestor's fish, yet in populous countries, like China or Holland, where every article of food is in request, and every spot of ground is turned to the best account, great attention is paid to the structure and management of Fish-ponds; there experience has taught men to ascertain the quantity of every kind of fish which any given space can support; in the former, it is supposed that ninety brace of well sized Carp, and forty of Tench are a full stock for an acre of water, and that a more numerous store would languish and die; in the latter, a far greater number will thrive in a similar situation. In some parts of Germany, where the domestication of fish is practised, a suite of

ponds are so constructed, that they can empty the water and fish of one pond into another, the empty one is then ploughed and sown with barley; when the grain is in the ear, the water and its inhabitants are again admitted, and by feeding on the corn, are more expeditiously fattened than by any other management. For all their ponds the Milters are thought preferable, as they become sooner fat than the Spawners.

In this country many acres of swampy, moorish grounds, producing little feed for cattle, and, in their present state, a trifling rent, might be profitably converted into fish-ponds, particularly within thirty or forty miles of the metropolis; an acre of water (after being two years stocked) will annually yield two hundred Carp and one hundred Tench, that will sell upon the spot to the London fishmongers at a shilling each, an income to be obtained from no other produce to which such sort of land can be appropriated.

In forming a piece of water of large dimension, some competent person will doubtless be employed to inspect and insure that the bank is made durable, and will likewise so guard against floods, that it be endangered by no sudden pressure against it. A common tumbling bay at each extremity of the head, fixed at the usual level of the water, with iron grating a foot or eighteen inches above that level, will allow a proper vent for the superfluous water, and also stop any fish from escaping through, if disposed to move in consequence of any rapid influx.

The sluice pipe should be laid low enough to draw off all the water, and be extraordinarily well rammed with clay at the botton; the plug must be heart of oak, as indeed should all the timber work, the planks which surround the plug should be so perforated, as to allow the water, but the holes be too small to admit any fish, to pass, and the whole should be surrounded with a frame, to prevent its being strained by a boat's running against it, which might cause it to be leaky.