WITH ROD AND GUN ON THE MAESHES 29 



even though he be the most ignorant marshman that ever 

 tumbled into a dyke. 



Hardly had I dropped my bait into the middle of the 

 fleet when the float — a big cask-bung — commenced 

 bobbing and twisting about in the water as though 

 possessed of a thousand devils. 



" There is no pike about that gentleman," I ejacu- 

 lated, as I took up the rod to strike. Swish ! and I was 

 into him ; but, as I struck, the silver belly and snake - 

 Hke head of an enormous eel appeared for a moment of 

 time on the surface. 



" Whoy, yew've got a gert ode eel, nigh big as the 

 conger w'at comed ashore on the sands last spring tides, 

 master. Whew ! don't her kick neither." 



" Her " did kick, hke an unbroken mule, for quite ten 

 minutes and then she caved in ; and the biggest fresh- 

 water eel it had ever been my luck to catch lay on the 

 bank of the fleet ; and in less time than it takes to write 

 the great shmy brute had so twisted and knotted up my 

 line that it took me quite half-an-hour to unravel the 

 tangle. Six pounds did that silver-belhed monster 

 weigh, and, as I remarked before, it was the heaviest of 

 its species I had ever caught or am hkely to catch again. 



Having cleared my tackle, I chose the biggest and 

 Hveliest bait I could find in the bucket, and, moving a 

 httle farther along the bank, I again made a cast into 

 the middle of the fleet. 



Scarcely had the bait disappeared into the depths of 

 the black, peaty-looking water, than my young com- 



