76 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



rocks and there caught many small kinds, but 

 nothing of account. Almost all my night fishing- 

 was directed by my hunchback barber, and great 

 times we had those warm June evenings, playing 

 a par go or sargo on fine lines and by the uncertain 

 candle-light. 



The most interesting fish to me of all that sum- 

 mer was the grey mullet. Man resembles the cat 

 in his hankering after that which eludes him ; a 

 woman, a difficult stroke at billiards, or a fish is 

 the more prized after a fight for the mastery. I 

 had never, before 1891, caught a grey mullet 

 weighing more than a few ounces, and the chance 

 of enjoying sport with large fish of that species 

 was a delightful prospect. I had been informed 

 by the very charming Government engineer 

 of the port, Signor Kaiser, that large grey mullet 

 were known to frequent the private docks, and he 

 assured me that I was at liberty to fish for them 

 whenever I pleased. Signor Kaiser and his aged 

 mother occupied a flat in the same house as my- 

 self, on the Scali degli Olandesi, and I recollect 

 congratulating myself on this stroke of luck. 

 Mullet were plentiful at Leghorn in those days, 

 for dynamite, which had done its baleful work 

 on many of the open grounds, had been excluded 

 from the docks. They were even abundant in 

 the canal that ran through the town ; and opposite 

 my study window men used to angle for them 



