t it only turned the
scale at 16 lb. According to the recognised rules of the game this
fellow should have been taken in the deepest water; but it was a fish
that could probably afford to set rules at defiance. I struck it,
anyhow, in less than 16 in., and when I least expected it. We had
worked our way to a shallow end of the lake, where the submarine plough
had not ventured, and, observing one clear space in a waste of
anacharis, I threw into and spun across it, moving a fish that went
into the weeds beyond. It went so leisurely, and made so distinct a
track, that I, more out of curiosity than anything else, gave it a
second chance. The bait was for a moment entangled in the weeds, but
was released easily. There was then a sudden splash that could be
heard afar, and a furious running out of line. A salmon would not have
fought more gamely than did this pike during a splendid quarter of an
hour. Another five minutes and it would have been scot-free, for it
was held by one hook only of the triangle. Even this had been much
strained in the tussle, and it came away the moment the gaff was driven
in.

If Nawabs have memories, and the Nawab Nazim of Bengal should to-day be
thinking in his Indian palace, as I am in the Queensland bush, of the
same subject, he will remember that summer day in hay-time when we sat
side by side roach fishing in the Colne, and how we both agreed, after
it was over, that it was the best day's bottom fishing we had ever
enjoyed. He made this admission to me with the gravity natural to an
Oriental potentate; I, not having so many jewels and claims against the
Government on my mind, with, I hope, not unbecoming jubilancy. But we
were both in earnest. The worthy Hindoo and his son were adepts in
this modest branch of the gentle art, and the Nawab, spite of his big
spectacles, could detect a bite as if he had been a roach fisher all
his days.

Any other description of angling would, I presume, have been alien to
the tastes of an Oriental, but this offered a minimum of exertion. I
seated myself a respectable distance above their highnesses, and if now
and then my pricked fish disturbed their "swim," they must admit they
received the full benefit of my ground bait, which, as the balls
gradually dissolved, crept down to sharpen the appetites of the fish
within their sphere. The Nawab used one of those immense bamboo rods,
the sections of which have to be unshipped at the taking of every f