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SEA-FISHING IN SIMON'S BAY 



SIMON'S TOWN is a queer little place, 

 dominated on one side by a mountain 

 topped with gorgeous heaths and wild flowers 

 and on the other side by immense docks, usually 

 empty. Between them is old Admiralty House, 

 with its lovely garden, and Simon's Town itself, 

 straggling along the road between the moun- 

 tain and the shore, and peopled chiefly by a 

 coloured parasitic population depending directly, 

 as we all do indirectly, upon the British Navy 

 for means of existence. For the sea-fisherman 

 the bay has infinite possibilities, provided that 

 he takes expert advice about time, tide and 

 locality. You can fish with rod or hand-line 

 from the huge breakwater ; there your bait 

 often seems to be anchored to the bottom. 

 Something tells you that there is life in the thing 

 at the other end of your line, and you long 

 for a capstan or winch to put on an extra strain. 

 It is a gigantic cuttlefish. Using your whole 



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