Chap. XVIII. NOVEL MODE OF FISHING. 



375 



habitual indolence, to work with hearty goodwill. 

 Mj old friend the Superior, however, was exempt 

 from labour. When I called, and found all the 

 verandahs and courts in a bustle, he was quietly 

 smoking his pipe and sipping his tea with his 

 favourite flageolet by his side. I remained with 

 him during the heat of the day, and in the 

 evening he walked down with me to the river side 

 where my boat was moored. He readily accepted 

 an invitation to come on board, and while there 

 took a great fancy to a copy of ' Punch ' and the 

 ' Illustrated London News.' I need not say I 

 made him a present of both papers, and sent him 

 away highly delighted. My boat now shot out 

 into the stream, and as we sailed slowly down I 

 could hear the wild and not unpleasing strains of 

 my friend's flageolet as he wended his way home- 

 wards through the woods. 



On our way down the river that night we came 

 upon some people fishing in a manner so curious 

 that I must endeavour to describe it. The boats 

 used for this purpose were long and narrow. 

 Each had a broad strip of white canvas stretched 

 along the right side, and dipping towards the 

 water at an angle of from thirty to forty degrees. 

 On the other side of the boat a net, corresponding 

 in size with the white cloth, was stretched along 

 above the bulwarks. A man sat in the stern of 

 each boat and brought his weight to bear on the 

 starboard side, which had the effect of pressing 

 the white canvas into the water and raising the 



