16 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 



water, a couple of fathoms deep and about four fathoms in 

 diameter, named Neill's Pool, but which we have jocularly 

 nicknamed "the hospital," as the poddlies taken from there 

 are, as a rule, extremely poor in flesh, often presenting queer 

 abnormities. Some are twisted and deformed; others have 

 constrictions upon their bodies, where at some period of their 

 existence they had been almost cut in two by the snap of some 

 larger fish, probably a lythe ; others, again, have been taken 

 with hooks embedded in their jaws and gills, and, though in 

 the last stages of emaciation, do not apparently profit by their 

 former experience. The full-grown lythe may be truly termed 

 the poor man's salmon, not from a food point of view though 

 in itself not to be despised but as a source of sport. Equipped 

 with a rod such as fishermen use who fish for a living, and for 

 a lure preferably a fresh-water eel about six or seven inches 

 long, skinned from the " busking " downwards, a struggle with 

 one of these lusty fish imparts most of the pleasurable sensa- 

 tions of the salmon fisher. Possibly at the first cast your 

 lure is flipped clean out of the water by a vanishing tail, 

 denoting that his lordship has not quite made up his mind 

 about your invitation. However, your next cast is almost 

 sure to be followed by a swift rush, which carries him well 

 out of the water, and your lure is off to the bottom and 

 possibly your tackle along with it, for, despite your triple gut, 

 unless great care is exercised in the first few mad rushes, 

 there will be a dissolution of partnership. Easily fagged, 

 once you succeed in getting his head above the surface, a 

 little judicious towing will land your two-feet bronzed beauty 

 at your feet. 



