Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/683

 T R it

or lice, as they are called. From this time he begins to feed on flies ; but in May the peculiar fly that he is fond of is pro- duced, and after feeding that whole month on this infect, the flcih of the fifh becomes more red and firm, and its bigheft feafon begins.

The general baits for a Trout, are a worm, a minnow, or a fly, whether natural or artificial : among worms there are fevcral kinds which this fifh is fond of; fuch are the earth- worm, and dung-worm in particular; the lob-worm and branding-worm alfo are efteemed : but the beft of all is the fquirrel-tail worm, which has a ftreak down the back, a red head, and a broad tail. The brandling is commonly found in a old dung-hill, or under cow-dung, or elfe among tan- ners-bark ; the others arc found in the earth, and under large flones or ftumps of trees : whatever worm is tried, the longer it is kept to fcower firft, the better the Trout will take it : they are to be kept in an earthen- pot among mofs, which ■ is to be fhifted once in three or four days, or oftner if the weather be very hot.

To take the 7mtf*with a ground-bait, the angler mould have alight, taper, rod, with a tender hazel top; and may an- gle with a fingle hair of three links, the- one tied to the other, for the bottom of the line ; and a line of three haired-links for the upper part : with this fort of tackle, if the fportfman have room enough, he will take the largeft Trout in the ri- ver. Some fifh with three haired-links at the bottom of the hnc, but there is very little fport to be expected this way, for the Trout is very fufpicious and very quick lighted. The angler mutt always keep out of fight, and the point of the rod mutt be down the ftream. The feafon for filhing for the Trout with a ground-bait begins in March, and the morn- ings and evenings in general are the beft time ; but if the weather be cloudy, the fport may be followed all day long. There mutt be a plummet at ten inches from the hook, which the angler mutt feel always touching the ground, and this mutt be heavier the fwifter the ftream is. The common worm is a good bait.

The minnow is a very good bait for the Trout, and with this the tackle need not be fo flight, for the Trout will make at this bait with lefs confideration, and fieze it as foon as it comes in fight ; the upper part of the line with this bait, may be of three filks and three hairs for the upper part, and two filks and two hairs for the lower; and the hook may be moderately large. The whiteft minnows and thofe of the middle fize are the beft bait for the Trout, and tbeyfhould be fo fixed on the hook, as to turn round when they are drawn up againft the ftream. The beft way of baiting this fifh, is to put the hook in at the mouth and out at the gills, then drawing it thro' about three inches, to put it again in its mouth, and let the point and beard come out at the tail, and then to tie the hook and his tail with a fine white thread, letting the body of the minnow be almoft ftrait down the hook ; by this means it will turn, as it is pulled againft the ftream ; and the more and quicker it turns the better : for want of a minnow, a fmall loach or a ftickle-back will fervc. The moit agreeable manner of fifhing for Trout is, however, with the fly, when the fportfman has found the true me- thod of doing it ; the rod in this cafe mutt be light and plia- ble, and the line long and fine ; if one hair be ftrong enough, as it may be made, by proper fkill in the angler, there will be more fifh caught, than where a thicker line is ufed ; and the fly-fifher fhould have the wind in his back, and the fun before him. TRUFFLES, [Cyd:) Tubera, in botany. See the article Tu-

BERA.

The antlents, it is evident from their writings, were not ac- quainted with the fort of Truff.es which we have in ufe at prefent ; they defcribe theirs to have been of a reddifh colour, and fmooth on the furface ; we at prefent know this kind very well ; it is common in Italy, and is called the wild Truf- fle, and difrcgarded. They had indeed the white African Truffle, fometimes brought to them, and held it invaft efteem for its flavour. The Romans called it the Lybian tuber, and the Greeks the Cyrenean mify; thefe people were very little acquainted with the African affairs, and called all the things they had from that part of the world by the name of Cyre- nean.

Avifenna recommends thofe Truffles as the beft which were of a whitifh colour within ; and this not being a clear white, he exprefTes hinifelf by a word which iignifies fund -coloured, alluding to dufky white fand, in common ufe at that time. Pliny has fo far miftaken the fenfe of the author from whom be takes his accounts, that he fays, the Lybian tubera or Cyrenean mify were more flefhy than the others : but Theo- phraftus fays only, that they had a rich flefh-hke fmell, by ■which he diftinguifhes them from the infipid Truffle in com- mon ufe with the Greeks at that time. The word ramul which the interpreters of Avifenna have rendered fand-coloured, may be perhaps properly ra triad, which is afh-coloured ; and if this be the true reading, we get over a great many dif- ficulties, among the later writers about what the tubera are- nola or fandy Truffles of the antients were. It is certain that the fineft Truffles were called by fome au-

T R U

thors by this epithet arenofa, with a very different meaning only exprefling that they were produced in fandy countries : the European Truffles both then were, and now are moftiy produced in dry ground on the fides of hills ; but the Lybian were produced only in the burning fiends of that coun- try, and thefe were therefore called fand-Truffles. Serapio tells us, that the beft of all Truffles were thofe produced in find ; and Martial alludes to thefe, where he defcribes the fineft Truffles as breaking the furface of the earth into cracks, and _ by that means directing people where to fcarch for them. This paflage of Martial has been indeed feverely criticifed on by many; and our own obfervation, and the teftimony of Pliny called in to prove the poet in an error : we do not indeed fee the ground burft or crack where the Truffles are ; and Pliny tells us exprefly, that the Truffles of his time never broke the earth where they grew, but remained quietly under it without giving any indication of their being there. This may all be true both of the common Roman Truffle and of ours_; but as Martial here plainly fpeaks of the fineft kind, that is the Lybian Truffles, we muft fee whether the African Truffles do or do not break the ground where they lie, be- fore we cenfure or applaud the poet. Leo Africanus is the raoft exprefs in the account of the Lybhn-Truffle of" any author, and he fays, that the places where they are may always be known by the earth on the furface being railed into hillocks, and breaking in numerous cracks : thus we find the poet is fo far from being culpable in his expreflion, that he appears to have been better acquainted with the nature of the fub- je£t, than the author who wrote exprefly upon it. I he Truffle is moft abundantly produced in dry fields of a reddifh loamy earth, not too poor; and they are found to flourifh moft near the roots of elms, the ilex, and fome other trees. They do not well bear thefevcrity of hard winters, but are ufuaDy fcarce all the feafon after fuch. The fmalleft are found about the bignefs of a pear, and they grow from this fize fometimes to a pound weight, but fuch are not com- mon ; what are taken up in the fpring are diftinguifhed by their white colour, and iniipidity to the tafte, and are com- monly called white Truffles : thofe taken up in autumn are of a variegated colour within, and are called rri arbled Trufffes j the inner fubftance having fwelled extreamly and changed colour, and the white part now remaining only in form of a number of pipes or tubules, which feem in many places to run to the extremity, and terminate in the chaps and wrinkles of the back. The greyifh fubftance, which is wrapped up among thefe tubules, when examined by the microfcope, appears to be a tranfparent parenchyma, compofed of little bladders or hollow vefiels, in the midft of which may be feeh fmall round bodies, which are unqueftionably the feeds of the Truffle.

When the Truffles are arrived at this degree of maturity, which is generally in Auguft, they are of a fine high flavour and agreeable fmell ; and the heat and rains at this feafon greatly promoting their growth, has been the occafion of the old error, that thunder produced them ; after this they con- tinue good to the middle of winter, and fometimes even till March ; but thofe gathered from this time till the end of July are lmall and only white, never marbled nor of their hiffh tafte.

If the Truffles are not taken up when fully ripe, they always rot and burft ; whence it is plain that they are an annual plant, which lives no longer than till they have perfected their feeds. And if .the place where the old ones have rotted and burft be examined, the feeds will be found after fome time to have vegetated, and a great number of young Truf- fles to be produced in the place : thefe, if not defiroyed by the frofts, are what in the enfuing fpring furnifh the younger white Truffles.

The Truffle is very apt to be pierced and eaten within by a worm, and this tbo' a damage to the particular Truffle, is of fome iervice to the people, who make it their bufinefs to feek for them ; for this worm, after a proper time parted in that ftate, changes into its chryfalis ftate in the body of the Truffle ; whence he foon after comes out, in the fhape of a beautiful violet-coloured fly ; and wherever thefe flies are found, they are an indication that there are beds of Truffles near, as they are never bred in any other root. Thefe communicate a bitternefs to the whole Truffle, and and make it unfit for the table; tho', if the whole be carefully fearched into, the part eaten by the worm, and the hole by which it made its way in, will be found to be in reality the only bitter parts, and the reft of the Truffle, when thefe are cut our, as good as ever : but, befide thefe defiroyers, the microf- cope ufually difcovers on the furface of the Truffle a multi- tude of other devourers, which are fmall white animalcules, continually eating, and fearching the cracks of the bark, as the places where the pulp is moft eafily come at; thefe fome- what refemble mites.

The earth that produces Truffles rarely affords any other plants, thefe taking up all the nourifhment it can afford : the earth all about them fmells fo very ftrongly of them, that they are eafily found out by it, by the animals which carry their nofes near the ground : and thofe who fought after them

foon