VI 

 WITH BASQUES AND MOORS 



Biarritz in March Discouraging Reports A Pelota Match 

 before the King of Sweden Two Kinds of Broken French 

 Gitouche Toujours D'Artagnan Good Whiting-fishing 

 Peculiarities of Basque Fishermen A Little Altercation 

 Fishing at Tangier with Abslam His Fatalism and Patience 

 With Jose, who lacked both Blackmouthed Dogfish at 

 Casablanca Barbel in the Wad Tensift near Morocco City 

 Water-tortoises Grey Mullet at Mogador. 



THERE are fishing expeditions which hold their 

 place in memory not so much by reason of either 

 success or failure as for having brought the 

 amateur in touch with the working fishermen 

 of many nationalities. Of three or four such a 

 word may be written down in this place. 



On a perfect day in March, 1899, I found my- 

 self on the quay of the Port des Pecheurs at 

 Biarritz, imbued with the determination to get 

 fishing of some sort, for the Atlantic was invit- 

 ingly calm, and away in the middle distance to 

 the north, where steamers moved in and out of 

 Bayonne, the sardine fleet was at work, working 

 havoc among the shoals. 



The sea-fishing reports that I had gathered at 

 the Hotel d'Angleterre discounted hope. The 

 femme de chambre could promise no sport until 

 August, the month, she said, in which rich Russians 

 arrived. I wanted whiting, not rich Russians, and 



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