76 A BLANK DAY'S FISHING 



his brethren, dragged them about with ease ; two more 

 were added, with little difference in the result. Succes- 

 sive corpses were attached to the load, to the total of 

 eight, until the ninth brought the creature to a stand- 

 still. Imagine the prodigious muscular energy enabling 

 an animal to drag eight times its own weight not on 

 wheels, mark you, but along the ground. It is doubtful 

 if the strongest Clydesdale horse could drag more than 

 a pair of his fellows in size along a road, and an 

 elephant certainly could not do as much. To match 

 the strength of the mole one must go to the insect 

 kingdom. 



XXII 



Among the points of superiority over other field-sports 



claimed for angling by the devotees of that 

 A blank 

 day's fish- ancient craft, is the fact that even a blank 



day is not wholly devoid of solace. The 

 same may be said of fox-hunting : there is always the 

 ' coffee-house ' chatter and other sources of subsidiary 

 recreation the salutary pleasure of equitation, the 

 opportunity for larking over unnecessary fences, the 

 display of the very finest specimens of horse and 

 hound, and perhaps, if you are in luck, and know how 

 to seize opportunity, a ride home in the gloaming by 

 the off-side of a side-saddle. But of what other sport 

 can it be held that a blank day is other than a de- 

 pressing disaster unmitigated by any ray of consola- 

 tion ? Who cares to reflect on a day's deer-stalking 



