136 GUN, ROD, AND SADDLE. 



here, and I believe is esteemed their best for the cui- 

 sine. A wonderful place also is Agulhas Bank for fish, 

 but you must be becalmed to enjoy it, no pleasant 

 circumstance when you are either in a hurry home 

 or the reverse. A calm away down in those ocean lat- 

 itudes does not bespeak a level deck, no, quite the 

 reverse, the ship heaves, pitches, and rolls with the 

 long swell. All motions are combined in her action, 

 and the yards, masts, etc., creak and groan in the 

 most discordant complaining manner. No, no, far 

 sooner would I hear the blast whistling through the 

 shrouds, ay, and so fiercely that the boatswain's 

 whistle only played second fiddle, than listen to the 

 complaining labors of a becalmed ship in the South- 

 ern Indian Ocean. But about Agulhas Bank. A 

 friend of mine, a really good and experienced fisher- 

 man, had the luck (if such it may be called) to 

 have a couple of days' fishing on this distant shoal. 

 ISTow this person had fished on the Newfoundland 

 banks, and had wondrous tales to tell, but never aught 

 like this. His belief is that there is not a place in 

 the world to equal it as a fishing-ground. If this be 

 the case, is it not surprising that some tight little 

 schooners have not yet made it their haunt ? The 

 weather here cannot be more formidable or dangerous 



