SOME REMARKS ON FOREGOING CHAPTERS 267 



Eventually law proceedings were commenced against the un- 

 fortunate man in whose name the lease stood, and rather than 

 run the risk of an adverse verdict, the amount was made up 

 between the whole five guns. This they did not from any 

 sense of what was fair or proper, but from pure anxiety to 

 avoid the publication of the billiard story, and of how they had 

 one and all been swindled not only at billiards, but also out 

 of the fifty pounds which each had paid in advance for the 

 next season's sport. 



Some time afterwards the party heard their late host had 

 daringly steamed for the Cape in the hired yacht, and on 

 arriving safely had sold her for what she would fetch. The 

 very latest news, however, of those concerned in the matter 

 is to the effect that Mr. Money Bagge was driving a butcher's 

 cart in Kimberley, while his victims continue to rent Cash- 

 bucket shootings, and get on well enough without him. 



In the story of " Murdoch Campbell's Revenge," one of the 

 most obvious hints is, never forget to take out a shooting 

 licence. This little formality is, however, often ignored by 

 many gentlemen who have not even the excuse of a short 

 purse for their laxness. The sport of the west coast is almost 

 endless in its variety, for setting aside the pursuit of game 

 with the gun, the fish, the otter, the porpoise, the seal, and 

 the wild birds in the time of the migration are ever inviting 

 the attention of the sportsman, and on this beautiful coast a 

 cottage with a boat and a boatman will provide daily amuse- 

 ment at a very small cost. The most plentiful fish are the 

 codling, the whiting, and the coal fish or saithe, whose young 

 are called 'cuddies. 



The saithe, I soon found, were very partial to a fly dressed 

 on an inch hook, with two long strips of white swan feather for 

 wings, a silver body, with head and tag of red worsted, which 

 attached to a couple of lengths of salmon gut will beat all the 

 shop flies, while with it I once landed, helped by a small sharp 

 gaff, a treble event in the shape of three coal fish weighing, 



