248 By Stream and Sea. 



satisfied with very frugal fare; fish, however, are favourite 

 morsels everywhere. 



At Ismailia, we contrived to rig up some kind of tackle — 

 cross-stick, gut hooks, and ordinary deep-sea lines. The 

 promises held out to us were not realized; but I did 

 contrive to catch a brace of the beautiful fish that, I hold, 

 would have taken a spinning or live bait as keenly as pike 

 or trout. The French pilots informed me that it is called 

 the Bitter Lake trout, and that it is abundant in the canal 

 and all the lakes connected with it. But for its perch-like 

 dorsal fin it might pass anywhere for a well-fed, handsome, 

 deeply speckled sea-trout ; and I can answer for its game 

 character, although my captives were not over half a pound 

 in weight. The seamen anchoring in the lake frequently, 

 according to trustworthy accounts, catch fish enough in an 

 hour or two to supply the tables for a couple of days. The 

 Waltonians in turbans and flowing robes, who came on 

 board 'in the mornings with . their night's spoil, thought 

 nothing of fish of this kind 8 or 9 lbs. in weight, and 

 splendid specimens they were. I dare say I ought to be able 

 to give the name of this fish, but I must confess it was new 

 to me. It seemed as plentiful in the Greater and Lesser 

 Bitter Lakes as in Lake Timsah; and, on the latter half 

 of the canal, nude fishermen, sitting on the sand or in their 

 rude feluccas, and baking hard in the sun, waited patiently 

 for a communication from the bottom to their fore-finger. 



At Ismailia one afternoon — for a break-down of the 

 engines, brand-new from a Tyne shipbuilding yard, detained 

 us in Lake Timsah for eight-and-forty hours — I cut me a 

 reed from the wayside, a lissom cane-like rod, fifteen feet 

 in length, and tapering from an inch in diameter to a point. 

 To this I attached an ancient fly-tracing, and having cut the 

 wings and body from a cinnamon fly that killed a fine trout 



