Related article: moot point as to whether the
palm for beauty of scenery should
be awarded to the Dart or the
Fal. A Devonian has no doubt
upon the subject, nor has a Cor-
nishman, and I am not going to
give the casting vote. I can only
say, " how happy could I be on
either," for each is perfect in its
way. We reached Totnes, where
we did the lions, including the
interesting old Church and Town
Hall, and having enjoyed the
luxury of sitting in the ancient
stocks, returned homewards with
a feeling that we had lived for a
time in a dim and distant past.
In the afternoon some of us
went in the cutter to Kingswear
to meet a train by which the
Admiral, who had gone home for
a couple of days on county busi-
ness, was returning. Knowing
his proclivities, we had taken the
precaution to bring with us all
manner of rods, lines, hooks and
4i6
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
other tackle, and our forethought
was fully justified, for he elected
to go straight off on the fish with
a lady-visitor and myself. He
soon discovered that our selection
of baits and hooks left something
to be desired, and I mention this,
as it may help to account for the
ultimate result. Soon after we
had got to work, •* a fishing-story "
rewarded our efforts, and at the Buy Chlorambucil
risk of being regarded as a
promising practitioner of that
gentle art which George Wash-
ington scorned, but of which all
good anglers are supposed to be
past- masters, I will e'en relate my
experiences. The lady-visitor,
who was fishing with a spinner
and triple-hooks, felt a tug at her
line which indicated an added
something ** all very fine and
large ** at the end of it. Leukeran Chlorambucil She
promptly began to haul in, an-
nouncing that she had caught
** such a big fish.** But " there's
many a slip 'twixt the hook and
the lip " of a fish, and just at the
critical moment when the prize
was nearing the surface, and with
our nerves at high tension, we
were awaiting its advent in the
boat, the strain upon the line was
suddenly relieved, and it came up
not only without any fish but also
minus hooks and spinner. This
was a grievous disapp>ointment
for the lady, with whom we all
condoled, whilst the Admiral did
not relish the loss of the tackle,
inasmuch as we had not made
proffer provision for such con-
tingencies. Before we had quite
exhausted our expressions of sym-
pathy, and our condemnation of Chlorambucil 2mg
the bad taste of the fish for being
so anxious to part company with
the lady, I Chlorambucil Cost felt Chlorambucil Price a good tug at my
line, and forthwith began to haul
in with might and main. Soon
a fine pollack was dancing a
fandango in the air as I brought
him, with every demonstration of
unwillingness on his part, into the
boat. Now comes the point, in
the nature of "a surprise packet,"
of this particular fishing story,
for embedded in the gills of the
fish were the identical spinner
and hooks which ive had just
previously lost, as -we supposed,
for ever. In view of the general
roominess of the sea, it w^as, to
say the least, remarkable that
that particular pollack should
have grabbed my bait, but it was
nothing less than extraordinary
that he should have done so im-
mediately after having had such
a distinct warning of the necessity
of caution in the gratification of
an appetite ; which latter, by the
way, one would hardly suppose
a hook in the gills would be likdy
to stimulate.
After mutual felicitations, we
approached the matter in a scien-
tific spirit, and ultimately arrived
at the following conclusions: —
(i) That for a healthy — not to
say voracious — appetite, a pollack
can give long odds to most created
things, including even a turtle-fed
alderman. (2) That a hook in
your gills, always provided you
are a fish, is not sufficiently an
inconvenience to put you off your.
feed. It may be a relief to some
conscientious persons who object
to fishing out of regard for the
feelings of the fish to know this.
(3) That at Chlorambucil Leukeran last a true fishing
story had been discovered.
Unfortunately, the general pub-
lic ashore, when apprised of our
conclusions, while fully accepting
Nos. I and 2, unanimously de-
clined to admit the possibility of
No. 3. This was the more singu-
lar, in view of the fact that we all
took special pains to embellish the
story in several important particu-
lars, with a view to rendering it
more relishing to the mental
palate, and, as we supposed, more
easy of digestion. (N.B. — My
cx>.]
NOTES OF A YACHTING CRUISE BY A LANDSMAN.
417
:count of the incident, as given
>ove, is the unadorned version.)
evertheless, our hearers, I regret
» say, as good as intimated that,
hatever their swallowing capacity
light be, it was unequal to fish
ories, and I am satisfied that it
now too late in the day to
:teinpt to upset the long-
lerished conviction that " all
len " (meaning anglers) " are
ars."
Our after experiences were not
icouraging, for the fish first took
rise out of Tom, the stoker, by
stting clean away with his hooks
ud bait, and followed it up by
oing the same for me. These
aiptures by the enemy, or, in the
inguage of military despatches,
regrettable incidents," tended to
how that the mobility, otherwise
etting-away powers, of the fish
1 these waters, when they ought
3 have been on the high road to
iscomfiture, was equal to that of
he Boers, which is saying a good
eal. In view of this loss of
mmunition, we had no alterna-
ive but to beat a retreat and
oake a right-about turn for dinner,
hough we had not done much to
lelp the cook, as, barring the
pollack, our spoils of war were
imited to a solitary "joey," other-
vise a very juvenile mackerel.
!)n the homeward way, I began
o moralise upon the remarkable
* slimness " of the fish in these
)arts, as shown by their special
iptitude for appropriating your
look and bait without being
:aught. The Admiral, however,
observed that he had known in-
stances of this elsewhere when
people Rshed in waters frequented
by pollack with mackerel tackle,
sis we had been doing, which was
a poUte way of insinuating that
we might have made a more
judicious selection of hooks and
bait in his absence. I think my
own supposition, that the fish fre-
quenting this particular coast are