198 FISHING GOSSIP. 
For this purpose, the onus must be thrown on the rod 
and tackle, which require to be managed with a stiff 
hand, and subjected to the severest test. The first 
time therefore that the truant can be brought to the 
efficient distance of the net, that useful implement 
should at once transfer him to the safe-keeping of the 
locker. Pat may be safely intrusted with this im- 
portant duty; and is anxious no doubt to smoke a 
pipe at the captive’s “wake.” : 
The capture of one of these large.fish is in most 
cases so like another, that further description would 
be superfiuous. After twelve too the sport need not 
be prolonged. The fish themselves appear to feel the 
drowsy influence of that hour; and to slacken in 
their raids on the moths and other insect lovers of 
the night. Our noisy little companions, the gulls, — 
have ceased their scolding in the air, and folded 
their heads under their downy wings. The bittern, 
the last of which was shot in this district some 
45 years ago, has suspended his hollow booming in 
the marsh. The hawk and the heron—those mortal 
enemies, which nature by some inscrutable arrange- 
ment ordains to build their nests in neighbouring 
trees—have discontinued their nocturnal combat, into 
which they were roused by our approach to the island. 
The owl, the otter, and the fox—those stealthy appari- 
tions of the night, which so often crossed my path in 
these lonely regions—are no longer heard or seen to 
