EXPERIENCES & REMINISCENCES. 71 



which Mrs. Commodore had now been able to do, of com- 

 mencing with a hollow space and blowing out or otherwise 

 exhausting the air it contained. 



Meanwhile the float did not sit the water like a thing of life 

 at all ; on the contrary every puff of wind blew it over on its 

 side. This was scarcely to be wondered at having regard to 

 the amount of " top " there was out of the water. Mr. Hopper 

 said that Witchdorter's float illustrated the difficulty of an 

 amateur building a float properly float making was a scienti- 

 fic art and at the same time a great mystery, and he proposed 

 that Witchdorter's " venture " should be disconnected from his 

 rod and line and that the boat anchor should be attached to 

 the float so as to give it a chance of carrying into effect the 

 absorption principle, whilst he (Mr. Hopper) took the boat and 

 his friends to the river bank and gave them an opportunity of 

 admiring the beautiful scenery over the bank previous to sitting 

 down to luncheon. This was accordingly done, and after 

 Newton Cliff and the other adjacent scenery had been duly 

 admired, the good things of this life were made to disappear in 

 a most startling manner the pigeon pie, which had been so 

 ably raised by Mrs. Commodore, was quickly demolished, and 

 the huge plum pie followed suit until one and all were able to 

 point with the forefinger of the right hand to that portion of the 

 throat known as " Adam's apple," and addressing in imagina- 

 tion his paternal ancestor exclaim, " Up to there, dadda." 

 After Witchdorter's float had been duly toasted in a flowing 

 bumper, a great commotion was heard, and one and all hurried 

 over the river bank to discover the cause thereof. There was 

 the float in all its glory and red paint, and not far from it the 

 Trent Company's two packets " Robin Hood " and " Little 

 John," with their respective captains and crews viewing what 

 they had come to the conclusion was a new buoy placed in the 

 Dubbs by the Trent Conservancy as an indication of some 

 unknown danger below. Neither captain would risk his packet 

 by passing on either side of what appeared to them to be a new 

 danger signal. Mrs. Commodore, ever ready, at once grasped 

 the situation, and addressing the captains assured them they 



