8 WHAT I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



I place pollack first among the fishes, by a long 

 way first, for men who desire, with an absolute rest 

 from business thoughts, unlimited lung luxuries and 

 yet to have glorious sport. 



My memory wanders back some forty years to 

 my first day among the pollack on the Copperas 

 Rocks at Combe Martin, in my native county of 

 Devon. Since that time I have caught this, the 

 boldest biter and the bravest fighter of all sea 

 animals, in almost every county that has rocky 

 coasts. 



My upbringing in Devon unfitted me for life 

 in cities, and I have sympathy for all who are 

 compelled to live in them. It gave me a love of 

 Nature and sport that must be gratified. The mere 

 odour of the earth, or the scent of bruised grass, 

 excites me more than the biggest of money deals ; 

 and this love must be as old as I am myself. I 

 have no knowledge of a time when I would not 

 hunt for a rare bird's nest or catch a trout in 

 preference to toddling off to school. 



I was always happy in the fields ; so happy that 

 I was not always able to answer the inquiry as to 

 how I had " got into that state," nor to recollect 

 whether it was the paddling in the stream or the 

 hunt through the long wet grass for the noisy land- 

 rail's nest that was most responsible for it. Acci- 

 dents will occur in meadows in summer-time, when 

 the ditches are grown up to be so much like the 

 high grass that the difference is not discerned until 



