DAYS ON THE NEPIGON. 



within the hearing of a past-master in the art 

 of falsification of finny records (but who 

 had long since turned over a new leaf and 

 repented), and despite the presumably vera- 

 cious evidence of perfectly regulated scales, 

 he could not resist the temptation of over- 

 estimating. 



We know not from whence the gentleman 

 came, nor whither he went; but he had the 

 appearance of a man who in commercial, pro- 

 fessional or social life would be the very soul 

 of probity, and would follow the line of 

 truth, never swerving a hair's breadth. Yet 

 in the recounting of an ordinary angling 

 achievement he disclosed the oft recurring and 

 almost irresistible temptation to exaggerate; 

 and doubtless he has had that individual trout 

 weighing, later in the season, at least three 

 pounds ; and his number correspondingly mul- 

 tiplied. Though, to give him the benefit of 

 the doubt, he unconsciously fails to recall the 

 facts correctly; and thousands of fish in the 

 telling grow faster than Jonah's gourd. It 

 was plainly evident that he was not the fin- 



