dusk; so I hauled up the anchor, laid by my rod and tackle for the night, and rowed homeward. The next day, I hit upon an expedient which I considered would prove the means of obviating the unpleasant disappointment I had experienced on the preceding day; so I obtained some stout gimped hooks, and having attached one of them to my trolling line, I in the afternoon rowed down the river, and anchored off the same place. I had not been long in the act of pursuing my avocation, when I felt a tug at my line. I was confident in the strength of my tackle, and perceived I had hooked some fish of more than ordinary power. It required great skill and judgment, on my part, to secure my hold upon my unknown friend, for his weight assured me it was no baby I had to deal with. I was engaged upwards of five minutes in struggling with my combatant, when eventually I discovered that I had hooked an immense base; and as I drew him up into the boat, his large mouth being wide open, and the long spines on his back and other fins being thrown upward, he looked like some sea-dragon I had got beside me : this capture weighed six pounds. On the same evening I succeeded in taking from three to four dozen base of different sizes, varying from half a pound to three pounds in weight: I found, from this fact, that the largest fish lie in deep water, and that boat-fishing is, on that account, preferable to standing on the shore in the prosecution of the above kind of sport. There is an abundance of salt-water eels in the tideways, more particularly so in the various dykes that intersect the boundaries of the salt-works between Lymington and Key, or Quay-haven. I have seen eels taken out of these ditches which have weighed as much as nine pounds each. Baskets and night lines are chiefly used in eelcatching; but there is a somewhat curious practice pursued by some of the country folk in these parts, in relation to the capturing of these fish: it is styled eel-bobbing; and the mode adopted is as follows:-A man provides himself with a long stout ash or other pole, cut from some adjacent wood or hedge-row. At one of the extremities of this pole he affixes a strong cord; to the other end of the cord is annexed three or four skeins of coarse worsted, cut asunder, so that every thread is separated. To the extremity of these threads a knot is made, and the same are caused to be conducted through as many large lob-worms as there are filaments. When the whole of the latter are furnished with vermicular bait, the angler consigns his bob to the water, and allows the worms to rest at the bottom of the dykes for some time. By gently raising his bob, he can sensibly distinguish what the likely quantity of fish are engaged in gorging their prey. When he apprehends that he has drawn a tolerably good lot to his toil, he suddenly jerks it up, casting the bob over his shoulders behind him on the ground. The cels getting their teeth entangled in the worsted, are unable, readily, to disengage themselves, and eventually become the unsuspecting victims to their own gluttony.

There is another ingenious method of catching the above fish, which goes under the name of sniggling. Eels are very prone to take umbrage in the crannies of decayed bridges, and, until they liberate themselves from their latebræ, and begin to " run," it is with great difficulty they can be tempted with a bait. In such cases, expert fishermen have recourse to the following effectual mode of surprising their quarry concealed in their imaginary secure abodes. They procure a thick strong

needle, to the middle of which they attach a short whipcord line, tying the same to a stout rod. They then spit a large worm lengthwise on the needle, and, with the aid of the rod, contrive to introduce the bait into the holes where eels are supposed to lie concealed. As soon as the sniggler finds, while in the act of his gently inclining the line towards. him, a sensible resistance to the operation of his hand, he tugs away without shewing any mercy; and, as the needle becomes crossed in the sophagus of the fish, there is no possible chance of its disengaging itself. Some very fine eels have been captured after this manner.

During the present month, the salmon-trout forces its way up our creeks into the fresh water rivers, to cast its spawn. These highlyprized fish run, in general, from one to four pounds in weight. I have caught them upon various occasions with a fly; the red palmer I have proved more successful with than any other, although, towards dusk, the large brown moth will tempt them to rise readily: I never heard of an instance where the salmon-trout was hooked in the salt water by any bait whatever: although I have observed them leaping out of the tide close to me, yet I never succeeded in capturing one of these fish with shrimp or worm.

The season for whiting fishing commences somewhat later in the year; this forms an entertaining pastime to those who can brook a swell or a squall among the billows. From the commencement to the finish of the flood-tide, in from six to eight fathoms of water, the Solent presents numerous spots favourable to this class of sport. The system pursued is for a person to anchor his boat off any of the whiting grounds, well supplied with a pot full of lug-worms. His whipcord line is fastened to the middle of a stiff piece of whalebone, about a foot long. From the extremities of this foot rod two hooks are suspended by two separate pieces of cord corresponding with the line, which is leaded, and the other portion of the same is securely fastened to the side of the boat. When the hooks are baited, the same are suffered to descend into the water until they fathom the bottom, the line being held in the hand. The angler can perceptibly detect the twitch of the fish when he hauls up his line, and generally succeeds in securing a couple of whiting at each haul. When the fish bite freely this sport is of a very stirring character, for a person can hardly find time to restore his baits before he has to take, in rapid succession, a brace of whiting off his hooks. By the way, it may not be inopportune to observe that no one should repair on a whiting-fishing excursion without being provided with a pocket knife, for it often happens that the anchor of the boat is apt to get foul of rocks beneath, and if there should prove any shortness in the "painter rope," so as not to admit of it rising with the tide, unless the same is cast, with a view to release the boat from its fixed position, the latter would necessarily go down by the head and be swamped, to the almost certain destruction of the inmates. The writer was once placed in such a perilous situation.

A concluding remark may perhaps suffice. Let a southerly or southwesterly wind be always selected for a day's whiting-fishing. I have toiled all day whilst an easterly wind has been blowing, and have not succeeded in taking so much as one single fish.

During the three following months, a vast fund of healthy amusement will be open to the general fisherman in the locality I have adverted to; and

should he occasionally prove desirous of varying his course of sport, he will find three fresh-water streams in the neighbourhood, which are well stocked with trout, eel, mullet, dace, and other fish. He can commence his sport from any desirable spot in the New Forest, and pursue his course downward towards the termination of the several streams as they communicate with the Solent. The rivulets, in many places, will be found to intersect woods and meadows, where the waters are encompassed by sturdy hedgerows. I have taken some prodigiously fine trout from these secluded spots, exceeding, in some instances, four pounds in weight; but recourse must be had to the practice of dibbing in such cases. A grasshopper, during June and July, will be greedily taken by trout in the neighbourhood I have been treating of, or the common fly (musca putris) will answer the same end. There will be experienced little or no interruption by anglers who may frequent the sylvan waters of the forest, and their health will be improved, whilst this favourite pastime will prove of an unfailing character."

May 26, 1856.

D. G.

THE FORESTER'S FREIGHT.

ENGRAVED BY W. BACKSHELL, FROM A PAINTING BY A. COOPER, R.A.

"The smile of joy danced on every countenance, but chiefly on thine, O Lightfoot! The warm current came tingling through your veins. There was a buoyancy of spirit and an air of success about you, that proclaimed you, to yourself at least, a king-a hero-a demigod! Hercules was a pretty fellow; so was Theseus; so was Pirithous but although they subdued various monsters, they probably never killed so fine a stag in all their lives. Happy, thricehappy mortal! Happier far than Candide, when he met Miss Cunegonde amongst the Turks, or (to make a more apt comparison) than our own Phidias-one Chantrey-when he killed two woodcocks at one shot! Thou shouldst have died that moment, my own hero! Alas, why do you survive, to pace over geometrical enclosures, in pursuit of pigmy game! But bear thy faculties meekly, whilst the deer is being gralloched."-Scrope.