EXPERIENCES &: REMINISCENCES. 93 



He still had a lot of " go " in him, but patience, aided by a little 

 bit of something else (Mn Hopper is a bashful man and there- 

 fore refrains from giving that something a name he knows too 

 that the readers of his notes are so intelligent) was instrumental 

 in safely bringing on board the boat a barbel of ylbs., a fine 

 lengthy fish, but still he ought to have weighed another couple 

 of pounds considering his lengthy proportions. 



So far that morning Mr. Hopper and Witchdorter were two 

 and two, but it was not long before the former was ahead. In 

 order not to pile up the agony any longer, suffice it to say that 

 Mr. Hopper shortly landed two more barbel of 2i and 3 Ibs. 

 respectively. And then it would appear that the surviving barbel 

 in the swim held a consultation and passed a resolution to the 

 effect that so many of their near relatives had so mysteriously 

 left the breakfast table it would be more prudent to defer the 

 satisfying of their appetites, and being proper kind of barbel, 

 they rigidly observed the sense of the resolution, with the result 

 that the three anglers found the game was up and accordingly 

 desisted from fishing any more and put up their rods, pulled 

 up the stone, and the lot having fallen once more to 

 Mr. Hopper to do a trudge on the bank with the hauling 

 line, he, nothing loth, was put ashore and soon had his 

 friends and their capture at the Ferry. And so ended 

 their barbel exploits for 1893. Friend Brown had caught 

 nothing, but he was occupied most of the time, net in hand, in 

 landing Mr. Hopper's and Witchdorter's catches. However, 

 he went ashore before leaving " Land o' Cakes " hole and left 

 a mourning card on the bank recording the demise of sundry 

 barbel in the adjacent swim through overpowering curiosity 

 and too eager appetites. Beyond that mourning card and 

 these notes there is nothing whatever to show that " Land o' 

 Cakes " hole had lost any of its finny habitues. 



A celebrated Frenchman once wrote his own epitaph, the last 

 line of which was as follows : " Friends, I beg of you not to load 

 my tomb with bad verses." Mr. Hopper does not know what 

 verses friend Brown wrote on the mourning card in memory of the 

 departed barbel, but Mr. Hopper feels sure that they would be 

 appropriate. No doubt the surviving barbel shed real tears of 



