SECOND DAT. | ANECDOTE. 41 



known very correct, and even cool, reasoners in error 

 on a point of this kind. You are acquainted with 

 Chemicus ; he is not an ardent fisherman, and certainly 

 not addicted to romance ; I will tell you an anecdote 

 respecting him. He accompanied me to this very 

 spot last year, on a visit to our host, and preferred 

 angling for pike to fly-fishing. After the amusement 

 of a morning, he brought back with him to the house 

 one pike, and with some degree of disappointment 

 complained that he had hooked another of an enor- 

 mous size, which carried off his tackle by main force, 

 and which he was sure must have been above 10 Ibs. 

 At dinner, on the table, there were two pikes ; one 

 the fish that Chemicus had caught, and another a 

 little larger, somewhat more than 3 Ibs. We put 

 some questions as to who had caught this second 

 pike, which we found had been taken by. our host, 

 who smiling, and with some kind of mystery, asked 

 Chemicus if he thought it weighed 10 Ibs. Chemicus 

 refused to acknowledge an identity between such a 

 fish and the monster he had hooked; when my 

 friend took out of his pocket a paper containing some 

 hooks and tackle carefully wrapped up, and asked 

 Chemicus if he had ever seen such an apparatus. 

 Chemicus owned they were the hooks and tackle the 

 great fish had carried away. " And I found them," 

 said our friend, "in the mouth of that little fish 



