XXXV11 



OF OBERHAUSEN ON A SEA-STREAM 



THE fishes of this river elude me more and 

 more successfully. Perpetually it rains. I 

 cannot angle ; I cannot paint. I propose to boast. 



Hitherto 1 have been absurdly modest. You 

 would suppose from what I have written that 

 I never catch any fishes here. You would be 

 right. But I have caught fishes in my time, great 

 fishes. I am in a mood to dwell upon my blood- 

 stained past. I do this whenever it rains all 

 the week. Let us go to Norway, to that island 

 where I experienced that Perfect Thrill of which 

 I have told you, to that sea-stream where Mac- 

 Alister and I discovered how to catch flounders 

 esoterically. 



At full flood this sea-stream is nothing but a 

 shallow lake, a quarter of a mile each way across, 

 with a narrow mouth at each end, the one opening 

 out of the lake above, the other, fifty yards 

 broad, leading almost directly into the Gulf 

 Stream. At the end of the ebb this second 

 mouth might be cleared by an athletic man, 



251 



