THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



247 



the sunset west ; and behind her, with dull, material 

 motion, were the fishers' boats, lightening the grey 

 river with the flash of their oar-dips. 



The yacht reached her anchorage in a little 

 lagoon off the river amid the poplars, through the 

 branches of which her red pennant fluttered. The 

 boats came up and the crews landed, each man with 

 a heavy load of silver-scaled roach and bream. 

 Then we saw the use of the big scales. Amid the 

 greatest interest and anxiety, and a vast amount 

 of talk and argument, the various takes were 

 weighed and noted. The winning boat had taken 

 inore than ten stone weight, chiefly of bream, 

 and the largest fish was four pounds. The fish 

 were then spread out on the grass, and a goodly 

 show they made. We were permitted to join the 

 fishermen at the festive meal which afterwards 

 ensued, and we can safely say that we never before 

 or since heard such wonderful angling stories, or 

 met with such apparently skilful anglers. The 

 class of men who composed the assemblage rather 

 puzzled us. Many of them seemed to be small 

 tradesmen, but the majority were of a lower class ; 

 bat what their occupations might be when at homo 

 we could not guess artisans of some kind, with an 

 affectation of the sportsman in their dress, which 

 gave them a nondescript look. They were capital 

 fellows, though, and we spent a merry evening 

 with them, and imbibed no end of angling lore. 



What surprised us much was that they should 



