FISHING AT GIBRALTAR. 127 



part. So often did this occur to me, that I determined 

 to go armed for emergencies; and having obtained 

 a most powerful bamboo-rod and attached a sal- 

 mon reel, with a sardine for bait, I determined to try 

 the results, nor was I long kept in suspense ; the rush 

 came, line was given, but all of no avail, for the hoped- 

 for captive refused to be taken, and the loss of hooks 

 and leader followed. A dozen times I made the 

 essay, and a dozen times the results were similar. 

 What those leviathans were, I never knew with cer- 

 tainty, but I always strongly suspected the ravisher to 

 be no less than a dolphin (Delphinus Tursio). To 

 possess a big fellow I found was impossible, so I 

 stuck to the little mackerel, and revenged upon them 

 at breakfast the next morning, the depredations of 

 their seniors. 



At Catalin Bay, where I had to serve the allotted 

 period of imprisonment, I found the fishing even bet- 

 ter than on the west side. When I was sent there, 

 I should have liked to question the colonel as to the 

 justice of his selection, but after all, the two months 

 flitted by, and even now I look back with pleasure to 

 the simple, small Genoese fishing-village. Perhaps 

 by chance there is a fisherman stationed there now ; 

 well, if so, I will put him up to the ropes. As you go 



