OLD MURRAY BAY 



to be considered. Less than five dozen 

 trout to a competent and persevering rod 

 for an evening and morning was accounted 

 poor, ten dozen good, over it unusual good 

 sport. The fish averaged somewhat bet- 

 ter, but for really large trout it was neces- 

 sary even then to push farther afield. 

 Rumours hearkened to by willing ears 

 were very gad-flies which drove us to dis- 

 tant waters — with toils and labours which 

 there seems no longer great stomach to en- 

 counter. But in this contrasting of past 

 and present (with some inevitable prefer- 

 ence) one must ever be mindful of that an- 

 cient shard, deep-buried iwhere [Babylon 

 stood, and its cuneiform script: — 'Alas, 

 alas; times are not what they were'! The 

 laudator s commonplace has been a safe 

 comment for unknown cycles of the Dog 

 Star. 



By the by, and admitting the irrelevance 

 if you press the objection, may it not be 

 that some forgotten wag once found in this 

 same Canicular year, covering some 1460 of 

 our solar years, the germ of our apparently 

 meaningless phrase, — 'a dog's age'? 



Whether for better or worse, the change 

 can hardly be gainsaid. The country of 

 mountain and lake behind Murray Bay, 

 53 



