ANGLING NOTES FROM ABROAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1858, 1 July 1887, Page 27

ANGLING NOTES FROM ABROAD.

A writer in the Gazette, in an article made up of reminiscences of Rankine, the blind fisher of St. Boswell's on the Tweed, tells the following instance of "mistaken identity," perhaps' unequalled since the days when that well-known though undeveloped archer "strong his bow to shoot a crow and shot the cat in the window " :

Rankine was very fond of trout fishing late in the evening, and one" night his brother-in-law, Johnstone, who was posted on the top of a cliff keeping a look-out for poachers, observed a man wading in the river.. It was 1 a bright moonlight night, and he soon recognised the, poacher— Rankine, the blind man. (He had free right to fish for trout ; but he was using his salmon rod, and this was questionable, "very. However, Johnstone, now fully interested, remained on the alert to see if a salmon would

4 fcome" to the fly « by the "pale light * of the moon/'^TliCly^as' weU^thro'*n and the pool very c^fuUy searched ;"feV knew the waters so well. t Now, thp dog was" nf "the. habits * of taking a little aionßement.on his ownaccpuQ^ ... while his master waded, and, so, the* night; being , warm, and His master among the running waters thigh deep, the r ,dog quietly { eniierecl i£e river above him, and -began to' swim across; 1 trot when he had got into, the strongest water .half <way over, he soon drifted down to' the very groond where Rankine was, assiduously i fishing. Iforl,1 for l , salmon. At last the fly feU across, hftn,«nd then the blind, man was seen, to strike., Down went the dog, on came the blind man^ stumbling r over the stone, and giving line" freely ;'- away," toward tHe.far side went'the,,fine^while T 'tlie reel sang out merrily/ At' last" the: "fißh"' seemed ' to he getting, tired, and'Rankine TolloWedlfe^ down to the tail of the poolj shortening ap line. He had no gaff, and proposed grounding hift fish on a gravel bed.' At last the fish w»a apparently laoded; but just as he ' was rushing forward to ' take it; by the tail) the dog shook himself, and Jobnstone heard the voice: •'Qh!,yqui brute;, is it you I hae gotten a haud.o'?'' atwwhjoh Johnstone exploded in 'fit of laughter. . .