144 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



also took four inches off, and what was said when the 

 unfortunate victim got into them next morning may be left 

 to the imagination. 



* * 



The skipper of a coasting vessel, sailing from Bristol, had 

 among his crew an Irishman whose knowledge of seafaring 

 matters was almost limited to knowing bow from stern. 

 The captain put him on the look-out one very dark night, 

 giving him strict injunctions to report anything in the nature 

 of a light. By and bye he approached the skipper and said, 

 " Cap'n, there's something foreninst the vessel." "What 

 is it ? " said the captain. " I don't know," said the Irish- 

 man. "What is it like?" asked the Captain. "Well, 

 sorr," says Pat, " there's a red light, and a white light, and 

 a green light, and it looks like a chemist's shop." 



# * 



The common or garden type of angler is usually such a 

 fair even-going fellow that it is perplexing to meet with one 

 out of the ordinary run. In the views, the wishes, and 

 the ambitions of most of us there is as little difference as 

 there is between a rich man and a dog's tail and there is 

 less than you might imagine one keeps a carriage and the 

 other keeps a wagging, at least, it does until you muzzle the 

 other end of it. This is a bold flight, I know, and perhaps 

 you had better forget you have read it. I was seated not 

 long ago next to a genial soul in a very remote corner of the 

 land, of course, and I ventured to sound him as to the depths 

 and shoals of his piscatorial experience and particularly as to 

 fly-fishing, and as I cannot improve on his own narrative it 

 must be told in the vernacular of the county in which it 

 occurred. " Nay, I've nivver done much fly-fishing. A 

 friend o' mine telled me at it were superior to coarse fishing, 

 soa I thought I'd try, and I bought all t' tackle 'at were 



