206 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



morning the first-comers obtained as much as ;io per 

 last. 



The Seabirdi with her genial skipper and jolly crew, having 

 had the last herring emptied into the " swill," is tugged out 

 into the stream, and from the pier where the boys are haul- 

 ing up small codlings and whiting, an hour or two before 

 sunset I can spy afar off the little flag with a white centre 

 and red ground voyaging in company with other boats, two 

 at least of which will nevermore return to land. 



PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE NORFOLK BROADS. 



These notes I will endeavour to invest with all the value 

 of a lady's postscript, in order to make amends for any un- 

 kind thoughts into which I have been, by ill-luck, betrayed 

 against the East Anglian Broads. Taken at the proper 

 time these singular sheets of water brim over with coarse 

 sport to the angler ; I say taken at the proper time, because 

 unless this proviso be considered it will be waste labour 

 indeed to visit them. Thus, you hear wondrous stories of 

 bream capture, yet take no note of the month when it 

 happened. The stories referred to July, and you are 

 disgusted because in October you fail to prick a fish. The 

 same experience will be yours if you try for pike before 

 winter. There is a time for all things, good reader, and the 

 time for bream in the Norfolk Broads is July and August, 

 and as much of September as the sun vouchsafes to you ; 

 while the time for jack is December good, January 

 better, February best. 



How many Broads there may be in Suffolk and Norfolk 

 I am not prepared to say, but with a map spread out before 



