Sunset playgrounds; fishing days and others in California and Canada ..

Front matter

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Preface

If, as has been said, all good Americans go to Paris after they die, then assuredly all good fishermen should go to America before, for no other Continent has such amazing resources for their entertainment in river, lake, and sea. The salmon-fishing, it is true, is somewhat restricted, but for other game fishes of both fresh and salt, America is without a rival. Canada alone has scores of lakes and hundreds of streams not yet familiar to the white man, and long at rest from the Indian. California, less untrodden, it is true, than the Land of Snows, is none the less a wonderful fisherman's playground, with lakes and rivers that teem with trout, and with great variety of enormous fishes on its' coast, one of them — still, alas, a dream — the elusive object of my happy raid.

In each of these widely different countries, going by way of the sunny West Indies, and returning by way of the icy St. Lawrence, I spent some pleasant weeks, following a carefully planned itinerary, save where the gleam of some lake or river that I had not taken into account bade me iv PREFACE

halt and put my rod together. Needless to say, the finest waters, in which sport still borders on the miraculous draught, lie away at the end of horse-trails out of reach of those who hug the railroad. As a slave of time, I had to deny myself many such excursions, but I did manage to make an occasional side-track of thirty or forty miles to the haunts of fish which still, to their cost, mistake an artificial fly indifferently thrown for an ephemeral native of the water. Even with the limitations of my route, I enjoyed better sport in half-a-dozen weeks than I should have found at home in as many months, and, had only Catalina's attractions been less potent, I might, by spending all my time in the Dominion, have enjoyed the sport of my life. It is sometimes argued by fishermen with a month's holiday that Canada is too far away for their sport, since half at any rate of the vacation goes in the round journey. This is undeniable, yet I venture to say that, with their plans made beforehand under proper advice, they would get more fish and fishing in the remaining half of their freedom than in the whole month at home, while the cost of the journey would not exceed the rental of really first-class water in Scotland.

This is no attempt at a guide book, but, like an earlier volume, a mere collection of random impressions of sport and scenery, of men and cities, during a trip of fifteen or twenty thousand

PREFACE v

miles. That the book concerns itself a little less with fishing, and a little more with matters of general interest than my last, will not, I hope, be accounted against it. Its atmosphere is chiefly that of the wonderful Pacific Slope which, with the coming rift, not, as of old, between North and South, but between East and West, is going, probably as a powerful Federation, to play so important a part in the history of new civilizations. If, here and there, my unpretentious narrative touches more serious issues, it does so only incidentally, since, ever on the move, I read such signs of the times only as he who runs. Moreover, I lack both the ambition and the right to advise Congress on the control of Japanese immigration, or to admonish Ottawa on its favouritism of American models. I am even unfashionable enough to suspect that Washington, can settle its own difficulties, and Canada work out her own destiny without my help. This confession would be humiliating to some of my friends, but leaves me cheerful. Therefore I have now and again alluded to these problems only in so far as they caught the eye of a contemplative angler with leisure to look about him ; and the control of the negro, the exclusion of the Asiatic, or the protection of fisheries is touched on as inoffensively, I hope, as the life and manners of Americans as I saw them at home.

For the sea-fisherman, the chief interest of the vi PREFACE

book will lie in the chapter on Catalina Island. For some years there has been no very accurate idea at home as to what sport that once famous rendezvous of tunas still affords. On the one hand, it was reported that the tunas still came, though in diminished numbers. At the other extreme, we were told that the fishing was beneath contempt. In the interests of those who might contemplate making the journey if fuller information from an unbiassed source were available, I decided to go out myself, and I made the trip fully as much with this object as in any sanguine hope of getting a tuna. I got none. Neither did anyone else. What I did get was exciting sport with big fish on light tackle, and of this a fully illustrated account will be found in these pages.

Of the photographs the greater number were taken by myself, but my thanks are due to the Hon. Howard Douglas, superintendent of Canada's National Park, for one of buffalo ; to the Pillsbury Company for three of the Yosemite ; to Mr. Ironmonger for several of the Catalina subjects ; and to the Portland Chamber of Commerce for the study of Portland roses.

P.G.A.

Teignmouth,

Christmas, 1908.

CHAPTER I. DAYS ON THE CARRIBEAN. page

In Praise of Travel — The Way of the Sun — The Tagut — Wireless Telegraphy — The Sea Life — Barbados — Its Coloured Folk — An American Error of Judgment — Mosquitoes and their Enemies — Plying Fish : A Disappointment — How they are Caught — Yachting — Bathing -r-Hotels — Talking Birds — A Cruel " Sport " — Theological Discussions — Carriage of Horses at Sea — Trinidad — Port of Spain — Indian Coolies — Indented Labour in the Colonies— Contrasts between East Indians and Negroes — Flowers and Birds — A Rose Garden — A Creole Luncheon — " Lappe " — The Pitch Lake — Quarantine — Reason for the American Regulations — Mosquitoes and Disease — Rats on the Spanish Main — Cartagensi — Memories of Drake and the Inquisition — Trade of Cartagena — Fishing from the Ship — Baiting with " Bully Beef " — Colon — Work done on the Isthmus by Colonel Gorgaa — Improvement of the Isthmus — Exigencies of Tropical Nature — Life in the Tropics : Headdress, The Siesta, Diet, Clothing, Maladies, Mosquitoes — Possibilities of the Panama Canal — Military Control — Wonderful Progress — Washington and the Independence of Panama — The Railroad — The Isthmus and the Railroad Companies — De Lesseps and Suez — Difference between Colon and Panama — Negro Intelligence - - 3

Chapter II. New Orleans

Transfer of Baggage — The Preston — Quarantine at Costa Rica — Shipment of Bananas — More Medical Examination — Immigration Fee — iiquisitiveness of the Immigration Bureau — A Catechism — Up the Mississippi — Customs — Dreadful Streets of New Orleans — Its Antiquity and Repose — The Spirit of the South — North and South — The Suburbs — Cemeteries — Canals — American Hustle — West End — Lake Pontchartrain — Baseball as a Spectacle — Relation to Rounders — Antics of the Pitcher — His Trickery — The Colour Problem — A Fish Dinner at Antoine's and a Sequel - 48 vin CONTENTS

Chapter III

A RAILROAD JOURNEY. PAGE

American Pride in their Railroads — Fast Trains and Others — One of the Others — Their Trains Compared with Ours — One-class Travel — The " Sunset Express " — Prohibition of Alcohol on the Train — Miserable Scenery — Stations — Bridge over the Pecos River — Langtry — Ciudad Juarez — A Glimpse of Mexico — Salton Sea-^-The Freak of a River — Flowery California — Pasadena and Los Angeles — First Sight of San Francisco ... ..-.-63

Chapter I. San Francisco

Recovery of the City — Rivalry of Seattle — Beauty of San Francisco — Van Ness Avenue — " Frisco " — Population — Golden Gates Park — " Monarch " — The Museum — Buffalo — The Seal Rocks — Swimming Baths— St. Francis Hotel - - 74

Chapter II. The Lake Of My Dreams

Colours of Tahoe — The Truckee River — Truckee — Prohibition— Reno — An Academic Fisherman — Tahoe Trout — A Fine Specimen — Handline Fishing — " Jerry " — Minnow Fishing— An Invisible Boundary— Fishery Laws — Flies for the Truckee River — Poaching — Bird Life - - 82

Chapter III. The Finest Sea-fishing In The World

The Owl — San Pedro — Dr. Holder— Light Tackle for Sea Fishing — Freak Fishing — Description of Catalina Island — Changes of Ownership — Goat Shooting — The Seals — Sea Gardens and Glass-bottomed Boats — " Jim " — Beautiful Seaweeds — Aquarium at Avalon — No Tunas — Possible Influence of Gasolene Launches : A Suggestion for the Tuna Club — The Yellowfin Tuna — Conditions of Fishing at Avalon — Light Tackle— The " Tip " — Reel and Line— Flying Fish and Sardines as Bait — Wilson Spoon — The Netsmen — Arrangement for Supply of Bait — Bigger Fish at San Clemente — Success of Mr. Beebe and Mr. Simpson — Mr. Calderwood's Big Salmon — Local Dissatisfaction with Clemente Awards — The Thirst for Buttons — In Praise of Catalina Fishing — Cost of the Trip as Compared with Florida — Guides — " Mexican Joe " — George Herbert — Jim Gardner — A Day of Disasters — Yellowfin Tuna — Yellowtail — White Sea-bass — Albacore — Black Sea-bass — Barracuta — Rock-Bass — Swordfish — Dolphin — S oafish —

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER III— continued. page

Sport with Yellowtail and White Sea-bass — Kelp — Method of Fishing — Part Played by the Guide — Hooking and Playing the Fish — Trouble of Bock-bass — Halibut— •" Lucky Stones" — Fishing for Albacore — Other Possibilities — Sport with Black Sea-bass — Good-bye to Catalina 89

Chapter IV. The Yosbmitb Valley And The Big Trees

The Menace of Forest Fires — Insufficient Patrolling of Beserves — The Way. to Yosemite — John Muir's Favourite Bird at Home — View of Yosemite from Inspiration Point — Coaching in the Dust — Bridal Veil Falls — Charm of Valleys — The Grand Canyon — Mountain Climbing — Waterfalls in the Yosemite — Bide to Mirror Lake — The Camping Life — Tourist Version — Story of a Talking Dog — Trout in the Merced Biver — Native Indians — Coaching to Wawona — The Biggest Trees on Earth — Galen Clark, their Discoverer — Monster Sequoias — Shasta Springs — Analysis of the Water — Trout in the Sacramento — Farewell to California -- -- --133

Chapter I. A City Of Roses

Portland's Bose-Worship — How It got Its Name — Trade in Grain, Lumber, Fish and Fruit — Population — The Forestry Building and Its Contents — A Sliding Scale of Budeness — Its Boses — Favourable Conditions of Soil and Climate — View from Council Crest — The City Park — Trip up the Columbia Biver — Inland Navigation in America — Trippers — Beautiful Scenery — The Cascades — Memeluse Island— Memories of Indians— Value of Associations — Waterfalls — Commerce — The Salmon- Wheels — Need for Protection of the Salmon — Netsmen versus Wheelmen — Hood's Biver — The Dalles — Barren but Fruitful Scenery — Where the Sick are Healed — Farewell to the Southern Pacific Railroad - 157

Chapter II. Good-bye To The States

Scenery between Portland and Seattle — Tunnels — Chaotic State of Seattle — Its Purity — Cigarettes Illegal — Evasion of the Law — Betting Allowed — Bivalry of Seattle, Vancouver, and San Francisco — Progress of Seattle — The Ordeal by Fire — Its Public Library — "Fourth of July " Celebrations — The Death Boll — Impressions of America — Americans as Sportsmen — Love of Winning — Too Much Competition — Ineffectual Fish and Game Laws — Politics — Newspapers — The Personal Factor in the Press— Manners— Spitting — Feet on the Mantelshelf — Conversation — Standard of Education — Republican Ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity — Instances — Chivalry — State of the Labour Market - .-.--..„ i6g x CONTENTS

PART IV.— Canada. CHAPTER I

THE PACIFIC SLOPE. PAGE

The Romance of Canada — Past and Future — Fish and Game — The Land in Summer Dress — Contrast from the States — Beauty and Peace of Victoria — Sea-trout in a Park — The Empress Hotel — The Museum — Voyage to Vancouver — Wreck of the Beaver — Anti-Japanese Movement — East and West — Outdoor Life — Stanley Park — Bathing at English Bay — Catching Salmon in Salt Water — Pacific Salmon and the Fly — Different Kinds of Salmon on the Pacific Slope — Journey along the Canadian Pacific Railroad — Scenery east of Vancouver — Mosquitoes — A Homesick Man — Kamloops — A Night Bide out to a Lake — The Most Wonderful Lake Fishing on Earth — BeBt Flies — Suggestions for Better Protection — Greedy Fishermen — Indian Modes of Fishing — Loons — Ospreys — Beavers — The Reproach of Lacrosse - 185

CHAPTER II.

THE ROCKIES.

Beautiful Railroad Scenery — The Great Divide — Banff — The Springs Hotel — Examination of the Alleged Americanisation of Canada — A Silly Scare — Dislike of Englishmen — Reasons for This — The Habitant — The National Park and its Buffalo — Man, the Preserver — Vastness of the Park — Amusements at Banff — Bathing in the Sulphur Springs — The Menagerie and Museum — Lake Minnewanka — Good-bye to the Rockies .-...- - 209

Chapter III. Cities Of The Plain

Tamer Scenery of the Prairies — Prosperity and Weather of Calgary — Scarcity of Animal Life on the Prairies — Alfalfa Grass — A Stowaway on the Train — Winnipeg, a City of the Future — Passing Glimpses of Famous Fishing Grounds — The Shores of Superior^Toronto — Visit to Niagara Falls — Their Spell — Unconventional Way of Seeing Them — Montreal — Mass at Notre Dame — The Lachine Rapids — A Tame Excursion — Preponderance of French in Montreal — English as She is Understood — An Amusing Misprint — Lake Broom and Lake Magog — Changes in the Fishes of Lake Broom — Grasshoppers and Other Baits — The Helgramite — In Praise of the Black Bass — Pickerel — Muskallonge — " Sunfish " — Mosquitoes — Cost of Fishing — Quebec in Holiday Mood — The Mighty St. Lawrence — Its White Whales — Home on the Empress of Ireland — The Repatriated — Journey's Ending. - 221

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FACING PAGE

Frontispiece — Hands across the Sea.

Crowd on Bridgetown Quay ----- 8

Road in Trinidad ------- 16

New Orleans : In the Cemetery - - - 56

A Station on the S.P.R. 64

A Station on the S.P.R. 64

A Gorge from the Train - - 68

The River between Mexico and the U.S.A. - 68

Near the Golden Gates - 77

On the Shores of Tahoe 82

" Jerry " 85

Avalon - 92

The Seals 96

Catch of Yellowtail 101

"Mexican Joe" 108

White Sea Bass 113

Fast in a Good Fish 117

Dr. Holder Fishing - - - - - - 124

Black Sea Bass 128

The Enemies of Sport - - 133

Bridal Veil Falls 134 xn LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The Yosemite Valley 139

Mirror Lake 140

Yosemite Falls- - 145

Glacier Point - ... 152

Portland Roses ... ... 160

Lumber - - ... \Q2

A Salmon Wheel 164

Another Fish Wheel 164

Victoria, B.C. - 185

Prospect Point 192

Buffalo's Head - .... 209

On the Range - - ... . 213

Devil's Lake ... - - 220

Niagara : The Canadian Falls - 224

Niagara : The American Falls 224

Chapter I. Days On The Caribbean

In Praise of Travel — The Way of the Sun — The Tagvs — Wireless Telegraphy — The Sea Life — Barbados — Its Coloured Folk — An American Error of Judgment — Mosquitoes and their Enemies — -Flying Fish : A Disappointment — How they are Caught — Yachting — Bathing — Hotels — Talking Birds — A Cruel " Sport " — Theological Discussions — Carriage of Horses at Sea — Trinidad — Port of Spain — Indian Coolies — Indentured Labour in the Colonies — Contrasts between East Indians and Negroes — Flowers and Birds — A Rose Garden — A Creole Luncheon — " Lappe " — The Pitch Lake — Quarantine — Reason for the American Regulations — Mosquitoes and Disease — Rats on the Spanish Main — Cartagena — Memories of Drake and the Inquisition — Trade of Cartagena — Fishing from the Ship — Baiting with " Bully Beef " — Colon — Work done on the Isthmus by Colonel Gorgas — Improvement of the Isthmus — Exigencies of Tropical Nature — L&e in the Tropics : Headdress, The Siesta, Diet, Clothing, Maladies, Mosquitoes — Possibilities of the Panama Canal — Military Control — Wonderful Progress — Washington and the Independence of Panama — The Railroad — The Isthmus and the Railroad Companies — De Lesseps and Suez — Difference between Colon and Panama — Negro Intelligence.

Family reasons made travellers of our first parents. One might have thought that after all these years such old scandals might be forgotten, but Fielding, who made only one voyage (which killed him), calls travel the curse of the race from the beginning. Anyway, travel is a blessing to many of their descendants. For myself, the " wanderlust " is in my bones. Paradoxical as it may seem, I find complete rest only in constant movement. Weeks at sea, even days on trains, are a blessed change after years of sedentary occupation in a village. I am neither seasick nor, like Mark Twain, do I take any pleasure in the spectacle

b2 of those that are. Indeed, though I know a nasty sea by sight, not being of Morley Roberts's " little good men " who stay at home, it is hateful to me outside of the Royal Academy. I detest the discomfort of a rolling ship, the effort of clinging to elusive railings, the trouble of wedging myself in narrow bunks, the labour of reeling up and down the deck like Danilo, with the " Merry Widow" in pursuit. All this is very personal, but this, I fear, is a personal record.

Those who dislike cold weather and detest rough seas cannot do better than proceed to the Southern States by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's boats. On a chilly April day, with snow still piled against the sheds at East Leigh, the promise of sunshine within the next day or two was good, and the thought of Barbados in less than a fortnight was better.

It is no route for those who travel against time. For those whose life is barter there are quicker roads to Wall Street or the Chicago Pit. For invalids, on the other hand, it is invaluable, even though they take little more interest in life on board ship than they would in the garden of a Bournemouth open-air home. As a holiday jaunt for healthy idlers it is also the best of routes. Calm seas, sunny skies, and a port of call every day of the week after reaching Barbados are strong recommendations. Few sea trips of such short duration afford the same variety ; several

FASCINATION OF THE SEA 5

islands under British rule, a historic stronghold of the Inquisition, and the greatest engineering enterprise of any age are among its sights. Quarantine, it is true, has of late robbed it of some interest, but even a day alongside a wharf, with interludes of fishing and buying curios, is a pleasant change after nearly two weeks of sea and sky.

The first three or four days after leaving the Solent are generally breezy. The Tagus ploughs her lonely furrow in all weathers in supreme contempt of the waves that fling themselves against her sides like packs of wolves. A great mailboat of her type is, no doubt, less beautiful than a brig under all sail, or than any little lateensailed felucca in Naples Bay. Yet there is something admirable in her inexorable progress. The ocean strives to sunder hemispheres. She succeeds in joining them. So is she mightier than the ocean.

What is the fascination of the sea life ? I love it, yet cannot explain my attachment. Still, seeing that it casts its spell even over those who have to keep the lonely night watches, to check cargo going down hatches, to superintend the washing down of decks, is it surprising that it should appeal to an idler ? If there is one fault in the modern liner, it is her installation of wireless telegraphy. You are no longer completely cut off from the " trouble of ants " ashore. Yet, even so, it has its uses in peace and war. For its uses in war, refer to Mr. Stead. For its uses in peace, I recall a pleasant memory of sending a Marconigram to Daly's Theatre from a couple of hundred miles west of the Irish coast, asking an audience of the " Merry Widow " for the next evening. The audience was graciously accorded, and thus I watched the poetic dancing of that festive relict both the day before I left England and the day of my return.

A passenger's life on a mail boat is the perfect ideal of peace. Unless he plays bridge, or is sick, he need not have an unkind thought throughout the voyage. His bath and shave are achieved at leisure, and there follows an inordinate breakfast. At eleven there is broth or ice cream, according to latitude. At twelve comes the mild excitement of seeing who has won the sweep on the ship's run. Even in these anti-gambling days a ticket in the sweep is a permissible nutter even to missionaries. Then more over-eating at tiffin. The afternoon is spent in deck cricket or loafing, according to taste. Then he forces himself to take tea. Dressing for dinner, dining, and passing a pleasant evening over bridge, music, or flirtation, according to age and fancy, bring the day to a close. It is not a life of high ideals, but there might be worse ways of spending a fortnight on the high seas.

There are gaps at table that first week. The deck-steward serves more food than those in the

BOARD-SHIP RECREATIONS 7

saloon. Then, about noon on Tuesday, the weather brightens, and the sea falls calm. Comely ladies (and others) who, ever since the Tagus passed the wreck of the Gladiator near the Needles, have wasted their sweetness on their own cabins, emerge on deck. Men don flannels. All try the frequent injudicious meal, for appetite waits on boredom and not on exercise. There is brave talk of dances and of sports. We all love the sea better in her gentle mood. We know that she may fool us again at an hour's notice. Still, like Horace's lady, she is Perfida, sed, quamvis perfida, cara tamen, and we hang on her smiles.

Recreation on board ship has rules and regulations of its own. The laws of deck cricket would bring Mr. Lacey to the verge of hysteria. The lancers, as danced in a lively sea, include figures that would be voted striking even at a Covent Garden ball. Trifles amuse one under such conditions, and those only are happy who can so far unbend as to be amused by them. Did not Mr. Howells find recreation even in the gambols of a hat round the saloon ? The animal life outside, though not quite so uninteresting as Darwin found it, is confined to a few small flying-fish, an occasional " Portuguese Man-of-War " drifting past in iridescent splendour, and an odd company of boobies and whale-birds. A passing ship, a rainbow, perchance a distant waterspout (the more distant the better), complete the fist, so that no one is sorry when at length, on a Mondaymorning, the low coast of Barbados breaks the skyline. What a contrast is this mathematical punctuality from those haphazard landfalls of the grand old navigators, who were warned of the coming journey's ending by the apparition of crabs and tunnies ! The captain of the Tagus does not trouble about crabs and tunnies, but looks to his compass and chronometers, steering a bee-line from Cherbourg to Bridgetown much as one might steer a motor from Piccadilly to- the Park, and making his ports of call as regularly as if they were stations on the Tube. Thus, not only do we reach Barbados " on time," to use a hideous Americanism, but we actually slowed down overnight, so as not to arrive too soon and dislocate the mail arrangements.

Barbados is what may be described as a " tight little island," so far at any rate as the density of its population is concerned, for the blacks 'are packed as tight as sardines in a box. Unlike most of the Empire's outposts overseas, it has been British ever since —

" Over the sand and the palm trees an English flag was flown."

It is about the same size as the Isle of Wight, and must have close on three times as many inhabitants. The whole of Bridgetown is as crowded during daylight as the Burlington Arcade in a o

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AMERICANS AND NIGGERS 9

shower. Of its teeming population, the blacks form probably (I write from memory and not statistics) nine-tenths, an overweight of ebony of which the quays give early evidence, since not one white face is to be seen in all that seething throng.

These Barbadian niggers are merry folk, more ready with their fists than those of Jamaica, who would talk the hind leg off a donkey, but rarely raise their hands. Dr. Herbert Bindley, principal of Codrington College, attributes much of their cheerful disposition to the influence of the Irish deported to the island by the protective Cromwell, and perhaps their love of a " scrap " is another bequest from Erin. In such a majority are the blacks in the streets of Bridgetown that it is not unusual to see even English ladies walk out into the wet road rather than force a way through the sable pack on the pavement. This concession to mere numbers invariably earns the contempt of our American friends," with whom Barbados is in growing favour as a winter resort. I have heard them pityingly remark that England's knack of managing native races, of which they have heard so much, is woefully overrated, and that Uncle Sam alone has the secret of keeping " niggers " in their place.

But " they didn't know everythin' down in Judee," and in this they are quite wide of the mark. They should be told the story of the little man who, when a bully took up all the pavement, with the remark, " I never give fools the wall," walked out into the road, with a low bow and the retort : " Oh, don't you ? Now I always do " ! Americans would be wiser if they sometimes gave the wall. Ignorance of when and where to do so gracefully will always bring them up against trouble until they learn differently. It is no sign of weakness. The colour problem yet awaits solution (and perhaps a very grim solution, too) in the land where niggers are " kept in their place." In Barbados there is no colour problem at all. The Americans have not begun to understand the rudiments of managing subject races. England had the art before even America was a Republic. The very entry of the United States into the ranks of the Powers might perhaps be quoted as an instance of British ignorance in such matters, but all the blessings of the Boston tea-party are not with America. So long as allowance is made for their superiority of numbers, which they neither forget nor expect those of different colour to ignore, the blacks are easily tolerable. Their womenfolk are patterns of good-nature, offending the eye only when they pathetically imitate European ideals of dress, hiding their woolly heads under ten-year-old Paris models, and crushing their homely feet into tight Northampton boots. So garbed, these poor ladies suggest monkeys astray from their cages. See them, however,

FRIED FAIRIES 11

bareheaded and barefooted, in clean and simple print dresses, as they go swinging of a fine evening along the road that leads past the Marine Hotel, and yon appreciate, even though their features be crude, the graceful carriage that takes your thoughts back to the equatorial lands of their origin.

The first sight of Barbados is not much more inspiring than the coast of Essex. The island lacks the tropical beauty of Trinidad. Yet it has clean sea-water, untainted with Orinoco silt. It lacks also the malarial mosquito, a blessing attributed by Dr. Bindley to the hostility of the little native fishes known as " millions." It is suggested that these little benefactors, which were not long ago brought before the public at the Zoological Gardens, might with advantage be introduced into the malarial districts of Africa, and more recent memories prompt me to recommend Canada as another field for such merciful work.

One of the institutions of Barbados is the flying-fish — of which, one afternoon two years ago, I ate a shoal at the Bridgetown Club. I dreamed of them ever since. I praised them in print. That morning, as the anchors went down in the bay, my one thought was to go ashore and devour another dish of these fried fairies at the same table. All the way in the tender I praised them with a fervour fanned to a blaze by their proximity, and suggestive of nothing so much as