APRIL 71 



XXI 



Of all the manifold forms and phases of human 



enterprise, none more surely earns compas- 



. ,. . , Montenegro 



sionate contempt from disinterested spectators 



than the proceedings of the field botanist and the un- 

 successful angler. Especially so when the pursuit is 

 conducted among people of an unknown tongue. The 

 botanist cannot explain to the practical native the 

 reason of his preference for some diminutive saxifrage 

 or unsubstantial bulb over the more conspicuous orna- 

 ments of the local flora. The eagerness with which he 

 peers among wayside weeds can only be construed as 

 evidence of an extraordinary, though probably harm- 

 less, form of mental aberration. Judgment of a 

 sterner cast can only be averted from the punctilious 

 fly-fisher by signal success ; and that, as most anglers 

 will agree, is not always at his command. The local 

 adept who, knowing how to extract lusty trout from 

 secret places with a bunch of worms, has no inkling of 

 the vast gulf set by the sportsman's code between fly- 

 fishing and bottom-fishing, watches the stranger's pro- 

 ceedings with indifference tinged with curiosity, and 

 pronounces upon failure the verdict meet for a fidgety 

 bungler. 



When, therefore, we set before us the mountain 

 principality of Montenegro as the field for piscatorial 

 and botanical exploration, we courted criticism from 

 both flanks and we received it encountering our 

 first failure before reaching the appointed goal. Our 

 Italian pilot and interpreter, who bears the historic 



