THE JACK. 213 



" A farmer in the immediate neighbourhood of Lochmahen, Dum- 

 friesshire, kept a gander, who not only had a great trick of wandering 

 himself, hut also delighted in piloting forth his cackling harem to 

 weary themselves in circumnavigating their native lake, or in straying 

 amid forbidden fields on the opposite shore. Wishing to check this 

 vagrant habit, he one day seized the gander as he was about to spring 

 into the pure breast of his native element, and, tying a large fish-hook 

 to his leg, to which was attached part of a dead frog, he suffered him 

 to proceed upon his voyage of discovery. As had been anticipated, 

 this bait soon caught the eye of a greedy pike, which, swallowing the 

 deadly hook, not only arrested the progress of the astonished gander, 

 but forced him to perform half a dozen somersaults on the face of the 

 water ! For some time the struggle was most amusing, the fish 

 pulling and the bird screaming with all its might, the one attempting 

 to fly and the other attempting to swim from the invisible enemy ; the 

 gander the one moment losing, and the next regaining his centre of 

 gravity, and casting between whiles many a rueful look at his snow- 

 white fleet of geese and goslings, who cackled out their sympathy for 

 their afflicted commodore. At length victory declared in favour of the 

 feathered angler, who, bearing away for the nearest shore, landed on 

 the smooth green grass one of the finest pikes ever caught in the 

 castle loch. This adventure is said to have cured the gander of his 

 propensity for wandering." 



Of course no modern trimmerer — I mean no "good" 

 angler, who occasionally finds himself associated with a 

 trimmering expedition — would use or sanction the goose 

 or duck trimmer ; and I quite admit that all " good " 

 anglers should have some qualms of conscience about the 

 use of any kind of trimmer. How can they help feeling 

 such qualms when they read the terrible things which 

 have been written by modern angler-authors of the trim- 

 merers of jack ? Holland says that " trimmer fishing is 

 unworthy of a sportsman," and that " the skilful artist 

 will disdain to have a trimmer in his possession." Trim- 

 mer fishing, says another, is a " very childish affair." 

 Mr. Pennell says it " ought to be the abomination of all 



