46 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



them had removed the bandages from a cracked 

 face, and the straggler was, in my presence, so 

 effectually massaged that the assault and battery 

 ceased from that day. Must I be quite frank ? 

 Much of the charm went out of those expeditions 

 under the new regime. Schoolboys, like women, 

 need excitement ; and what the chance of win- 

 ning money at bridge is to the ladies, the chance 

 of a broken head in a street fight is to the lads. 



Very different were the conditions of the mild 

 sport that we had from the pier at Bognor. At 

 that resort the tide recedes so far at times that 

 bathers have to wade a good half-mile nearer to 

 France before they can get depth enough to swim 

 in. The water alongside the pier is very shallow. 

 No steamers come (or, in 1886, came) so close in, 

 so that flat-fish gathered there in quantity, and 

 they could be seen taking the lugworm off the hook. 

 I used also to watch, and even imitate, the local 

 amusement of spinning for bass from the side of 

 the pier, the spinner being simply let down on 

 a line and carried out by the tide. During a stay 

 of six weeks I saw exactly one bass, a small fish, 

 taken in this manner, by a stranger. 



Bognor, if a wretched fishing station in itself, 

 was at least a convenient centre from which to 

 make expeditions east to Littlehampton and west 

 to Chichester. At the former I fished according 

 to text-book for grey mullet and, according to 



