Sir tmmpbrs Dax>p 



enormous proportions, when he is thus " taken down " 

 by that very superior person Haliceus : 



" Hal. I daresay he was a large fish ; but I have 

 known very correct and even cool rcasoncrs in error 

 on a point of this kind. You are acquainted with 

 Chemicus ; he is not an ardent fisherman, and cert 

 not addicted to romance : I will tell you an anecdote 

 respecting him. He accompanied me to this very 

 spot last year, on a visit to our host, and preferred 

 angling for pike to fly-fishing. After th ment 



of a morning he brought back with him to the house 

 one pike, and with some degree of disappointment com- 

 plained that he had hooked another of enormous size, 

 which carried off his tackle by main force, and which 

 he was sure must have been above 10 Ibs. At dinner, 

 on the table there were two pikes ; one the fish that 

 Chemicus had caught, and another a little larger, some- 

 what more than 3 Ibs. We put some questions who 

 had caught this second pike, which we found had been 

 taken by our host, who, with some kind of mystery, 

 asked Chemicus if he thought it weighed 10 Ibs. 

 Chemicus refused to acknowledge an identity between 

 such a fish and the monster he had hooked ; when my 

 friend took out of his pocket a paper containing some 

 hooks and tackle carefully wrapped up, and asked 

 Chemicus if he had ever seen such an apparatus. 

 Chemicus owned they were the hooks and tackle the 

 great fish had carried away. ' And I found them,' 

 said our host, ' in the mouth of that little fish which 

 you see on the table, and which I caught half an hour 

 ago.' " 



21 



