A FORLORN QUEST, ETC. 235 



them with a borrowed rifle of Cossart's. On one 

 occasion he with great address hit an o]d buck 

 (not, I believe, the one intended) with one out of 

 fourteen cartridges and brought it to its knees, 

 though it nearly sent him over the edge of the 

 cliff when he went to secure it. The poor brute 

 was, however, all but mortally hit, and it was a 

 relief when he presently, with the help of the retired 

 hatter, succeeded in pushing it down the slope and 

 finally killing it at the water's edge. The hatter 

 did the grail oching, and a very pleasant job he 

 made of it within about six yards of our dinner 

 table. 



It is not, however, of the big game shooting on 

 our island that I wish to write. The day follow- 

 ing our arrival, we were up with the sun, or, to 

 be accurate, about an hour earlier, catching all 

 manner of little fishes in the rock pools. Little 

 breams and blennies of several species came so 

 greedily at the tiny hook that in a few minutes 

 I had an assortment in a pickle jar in spirit. Those 

 unsophisticated little creatures were even more 

 free of guile than my perch and bream in the 

 Baltic estuary had been fifteen years earlier. It 

 is improbable that several of the pools, those at 

 some distance from the landing place, are darkened 

 by man's shadow from one year to the other, 

 as a result of which anything tasty is at once 

 seized, in full view of the angler, and without a 



