DAYS IN DOVE DALE 49 



Let me here mention a very curious inci- 

 dent which happened to a brother angler, 

 Piscator major by name. On his first expedi- 

 tion he lost his " collar " in the branches of an 

 ash overhanging a deep hole; his second fly 

 was hooked, and the leader was thus left hang- 

 ing a few inches above the water. 



That dangling bait attracted the attention 

 of a wandering bat, and on revisiting the spot 

 next morning, like Little Bo-Peep, " there we 

 espied our bat all tied and hung in that tree 

 to dry." We found him dead, suspended 'twixt 

 wind and water to that little hook. 



How that foolish little bat must have 

 struggled and splashed and dashed before he 

 finally succumbed ! The gut is of the finest 

 gossamer, and one would have thought he 

 could easily have snapped it or the twig ; but 

 perhaps his death will be better explained by 

 the pliancy of the bough just on the top of 

 the water. He probably met the unusual fate 

 of being drowned as well as hanged. 



Since this happened a similar incident came 

 under the major's notice in his own lake. He 

 had left a rod and line with flies in a boat- 

 house, and to one of the flies a rat somehow 



4 



