A TALE OF A MIXED BAG 



T was by a mere acci- 

 dent that I discovered 



the big fleet on E 



Marshes was inhabited 

 by pike, my knowledge 

 of the fact being gained 

 thus. While beating the 

 reed beds which fringed 

 the fleet in question for 

 duck, my retriever 

 flushed a snipe, which I 

 dropped with a " wing 

 down " into the middle of the narrow lagoon. The 

 long-bill, with the dog swimming close in its wake, made 

 a brave struggle to reach the farther shore ; but the 

 swirl of a heavy fish of some kind suddenly broke the 

 surface of the water, and next moment the bird was 

 drawn into the turbid depths. 



I should probably have attributed this sudden and 

 unexpected disappearance of the snipe to the onslaught 

 of one of the large eels which I knew simply swarmed 



in the fleets and dykes of E Marsh had not the young 



marshman who accompanied me as henchman, declared 

 the finny marauder to be "a masterful gert ode jack- 

 fish." 



115 



