MORE FISHING NOTES. 233 



friends stepped in to prevent it, fearing some acci- 

 dent to the semi -paralysed piscator. Fishing for 

 pike on the banks of a river, when winter has set in 

 sharp, is likely, after a man has passed sixty-four, to 

 prove injurious to the system. Dear old reader, 

 beware ! Smoke your pipe, and read of angling by 

 your own or your friend's fireside ; but, like myself, 

 visit the haunts of pike in winter-time only in your 

 mental retrospects, and you will have pleasure enough 

 in recalling many an encounter with jack-pike ; and 

 together therewith can adorn your tale with the dry 

 humour of such attendants on your sports as Billy, 

 or the pathetic character of the man who fished, year 

 in and year out, for a certain one-eyed perch, for which 

 see ' My Novel.' 



But to Billy. Some time before his forcible de- 

 tention round about his home, on the part of his 

 too loving friends, I found him on the bank-side to 

 which I had repaired for the tug of war. It was in a 

 stretch of deep water succeeded by a shallow, alter- 

 nating from a foot to two feet in depth, outside the 

 belt of reeds and water -tangle which rotted from 

 season to season, that Mr Pike had his home. " He 

 lays there," said Billy, shaking his head, " but I can't 



