fio PIKE AND. OTHER COARSE FISH. 



out of that capacious pocket of yours. The fish I *' now produce " 

 (as the lawyers say) will turn the scale at 9 lbs. 



' I found the sun very powerful, and my head would have ached 

 considerably if I had-not adopted my usual plan, which is to put a 

 handful of water weeds in the crown of my cap; it keeps the head 

 as cool as a cucumber.' 



' Well, I suppose I must give you a wrinkle in. return for this,' 

 said I. ' Do you know how to keep away midges and mosquitoes 

 when you are fishing ? ' 



' No, I do not,' said Pennell. 



' Neither did I, till last night when reading that delightful book, 

 "Life. in Normandy," I learnt that turpentine (I suppose spirit of 

 turpentine is meant) will keep off all the midges in the parish. 

 The author, a true sportsman, says : " It is singular how little this 

 is known. Many a man has suffered martyrdom when a single 

 drop of this turpentine would have protected him as effectually as 

 a coat of mail, and allowed him to enjoy a good day's fishing. . . ." 

 If I were about to fish in a " midgy " locality, I should order the 

 Chemist to make up the turpentine in what we doctors call an 

 " elegant formula," which he can easily do ; and an ointment thus 

 made can be agreeably spread on the skin of the face and hands.' 

 . . . — Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History}- 



I have often since then reaped the benefit of this wrinkle 

 given me by my old friend ' and comrade — one of the most 

 genial and charming of companions, and a true lover of 

 nature in all her moods. On the first opportunity I took 

 Buckland's prescription and found it excellent I had the 

 turpentine made up as he advised in an ' elegant formula,'jthe 

 actual compound admixed being glycerine jelly \ and I re- 

 member on one occasion by Kylemore Lough in Galway, 

 being so tormented with midges night and day, that but for 

 the turpentine, which acted like a charm, I must have been 

 fairly driven out of the neighbourhood. My two friends, who 

 scorned to adopt any precautions, actually were driven out of 

 the house in the middle of the night, and up to the top of a 

 neighbouring hill for relief. 



The admixture of glycerine makes the 'anointment' far 



' Richard Bsntley and Son, New Burlington Street. 



