BAGN ALL'S BUNGLES. 101 



Such commonplace names as the pike, perch, 

 etc., are quite unworthy of Mr. Bagnall's talents ; 

 they become the " pirate of the waters " the " strug- 

 gling tyrant" and so on; whilst the "mottled 

 sides " of the former " remind him forcibly of a 

 dappled grey horse." We will not suggest that there 

 might be any other quadruped not quite so elevated 

 in the scale of intelligence, and yet bearing possibly 

 an equal resemblance to Esox Indus. 



Mr. Bagnall is not much more fortunate when he 

 tries his hand at verse. He wilfully alters and mis- 

 quotes Thomson's beautiful lines, commencing 



-" But should you lure, 



From his dark haunt beneath the tangled roots 

 Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook." . . . 



and makes them applicable to the pike instead of 

 to the trout. A few of the original lines with which 

 the chapters are headed are more respectable than 

 might have been expected ; but for the most part are 

 well mated with their prose congeners : e.g. 



"With silvery scale and ruby fin, 

 Body deep, yet somewhat thin, 

 Forked tail, arched back, firm flesh and white, 

 A beauteous picture pleasing sight ! " 



A more pleasing sight we should have imagined, 

 at least in an edible point of view, if the fish had 

 been somewhat less " thin " and more " fat." But fish 

 that are "flat and thin" have evidently a morbid 



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