14 



tically fixfd, tliat tlie owner was imposed upon, and he lias 

 sent the bird to be stuffed as a memento of a very remark- 

 able capture ! I hope he won't see this confession, but 

 should he do so, I trust that he will acquit me of any know- 

 ledge of the aifair, until a week after it occurred, when the 

 hoax was common talk amongst " the boys," and I became 

 aware of it by being asked whether I had shot the bird for 

 Mike. My jealous neighbour has had a bad time of it, for 

 he has seen a twenty-eight pounder killed under his very 

 nose this week, and also seen the opposition boat going home 

 with two, three, and four fish each evening, while his total 

 score for the week has been one poor little grilse, and that 

 taken with a trailing spoon ! No wonder he is sour, 

 because you can forgive a man anything else in the world 

 except catching more fish than you do. By the way, my 

 faithful henchman cooked me a fish dinner the other day 

 in a fashion which must be at once the oldest — and it cer- 

 tainly is one of the best — known methods of roasting. 

 Having excavated a round hole in the earth, and paved it 

 ^^ith pieces of rock, a turf fire is lighted on the stones, and 

 others were arranged around like a grotto to get heated as 

 the fire burnt up. Whilst the fire was going on, a couple 

 of handsome trout, of lib. and 21bs. respectively, were care- 

 fully rolled up separately in well-buttered paper. The 

 oven being hot enough, the red-hot embers were taken offi 

 the stones, and the trout placed upon them. Other hot 

 stones were placed artistically round the fish — without 

 pressing on them — the burning embers of peat were placed 

 around the cairn, and we Aveiit away to catch more fish 

 ^\li^ist the cooking was in progress. A flight of teal comc^i 

 swishing past us as we push oft' from our " dissolute island," 

 as Mike called it, and a charge of No. 5, from the " full 

 clioke," stepped the flight of one of the travellers. He was 

 only winged, however, and by the time he had been bagged 

 shouts from the cook announced that the meal was ready. 

 And what a feast for a king it was! Those trout were 

 simply done to perfection, and when eaten wdth oaten scont^s 

 and butter, washed down with Guiness's bottled stout, he 

 would be a dainty man who, after a hard morning's fishing. 



