12 FISHING GOSSIP. 
landing-net of ample dimensions ; a cast of lake flies 
in his hat ; and, suspended in his left hand, an old tin 
kettle, very much the worse for the wear. A potato, 
firmly impaled on its nozzle, helped to keep the 
contents from escaping; corks being a luxury not 
always at hand in those days in out-of-the-way places. 
The regard, however, with which he grasped the 
handle of this part of his equipage would appear to 
attach greater importance to the contents than the 
exterior seemed to justify. To the junior figure in 
the scene the article was an entirely new item in a 
fly-fisher’s impedimenta, and forcibly attracted his 
attention. He had rowed and fished in the same 
boat with the most aristocratic anglers of the county ; 
but amongst the superfluities of their tackle he had 
never observed a utensil of this kind. Had it been 
a flask of “mountain-dew,’ or a sandwich-case of 
smoked beef or ham, he would have thoroughly 
comprehended its congruity with the occasion ; but 
an old tin kettle !—the very thought filled his mind 
with mingled sensations of wonder and ridicule. 
Yet he had far too high an opinion of his friend’s 
sagacity to believe that he would thus burthen him- 
self with such an incumbrance on a hot summer’s 
morning without some sufficing reason. His ac- 
quaintance’s success, too, of late, when other fishers 
were becalmed, or unfortunate in the selection of 
their flies, had reached his ears, and served to awaken 
