INTRODUCTION 35 



experience of no particular value, I may 

 just mention in passing that I was fishing 

 for bass in the estuary of the Teign during 

 most of the period of eclipse on August 

 30, 1905. In that river we usually 

 account a day of dead smooth water and 

 glaring sun the best for catching the large 

 bass it was noticeable that, in spite of 

 bright sunshine and the smoothest of 

 water between 1 and 3 P.M., not a single 

 bass was caught in the right way, though 

 I ascertained that fish were in the river 

 by accidentally foul-hooking one of about 

 a pound weight. In that part of Devon- 

 shire at that hour very little of the eclipse 

 was visible, save through smoked glass, 

 and the sun shone oppressively. There 

 was also a heavy, electrical feeling in 

 the atmosphere, and it is probably this, 

 whether connected with the eclipse or 

 not, which put the fish down, as they never 

 take the bait with thunder threatening. 1 



1 Yet only a little farther down the coast, Mr. Minchin, 

 fishing at the same time that day, found that whiting took 

 the bait freely. F. G. A. 



