THE ANGLER'S COW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 27

THE ANGLER'S COW.

Among the many dangers to which the fisherman is liable, the most ignominious of all perhaps is the sudden onslaught of a cow. Imagine, gentle reader, a field, and in the field a bull and an angler. The angler is absorbed in his angling ; at his foet a deep pool, wavy with ripples from the foaming torrent on the other side. The bull is evidently interested in the proceedings, and advances slowly. There ia a goodly trout on the edge of the rapid, water ; twice it has followed the fly in its downward course, twica missed it by an inch, the third time is a matter of moment.

The bull draws nearer to the Bcone of operations ; he tosses his head ominously, paws the ground, and makes various silent demonstrations of hostility ia the rear. That next cast is certainly a matter of moment. Gently and delicately the fly descends, floats for a second in the calmer eddies, and then disappears. Master Trout has made sura of that big yellow dun this time, and with a quick movement of the wrist the barb i« driven home. The bull, too, sees that the time for action has arrived. If nothing but " horn " will teach this intruder the discourtesy of bis behaviour -why, then, let it be hornß by all means With a short bellow he charges up ; piecator looks round humedly, grasps the position of affairs, and in desperation plunges into the pool. Baulked of revenge the quadruped roars defiance from the bank : spluttering, panting, and splashing, the biped gives him back his profanity improved and added to. The further bank ia steep and slippery, and the stream running like a millrace beneath it ; an awkward predicament, in good «ooth. Very awkward tap angler finds it, too, with his toes just touching the bottom, and the enemy guarding the only negotiable landing place for a hundred yards or so; and very tantalising as well, for the trout, the prime cause of the disaster, is still fast, fighting at the other end of 20yds of line. But there is no help for it: you, turn your back on the foe, swim across the stream at the tail of the rapid, and struggle up the bank, The rod, strange to say, is intact, and the fish, stranger still, attaohed, as though his gentlemanly instincts forbade him to take advantage of the dilemma.

In most oases, however, the bull vioious ia not such a nusisance as the cow inquisitive, Woe betide the unfortunate fisherman who leaves rod, net, or basket to the mercies of a cow. Greenhearfc, oane, or wicker work are all to her mind ; even one leg of a pair of waders does not come amiss at times, Something fresh, something a trifle out of the way, is the delight of that rough tongue of her*. We witnessed an amusing scene once on a Wilthire stream. As we orossed the hedge into a big open pasture ground, a cow appeared galloping up the slope. Behind her at an astonishing pace ran — or rather flew — an elderly gentleman, short and stout, paying out line from a fishing rod as he went. His hat flew in one direction, bis basket in acother, and his net in a third, and for a minute or two we could but stand and laugh. Both line and man were soon exhausted, and the heifer disappeared in fthe distance with 30yds of Bilk and hair trailing in her wake. As soon as her would-be pursuer had recovered a modicum of breath, he explained the why and wherefore of the chase. He had left his rod for a minute or two by the waterBide, and on his return had found the pUguey beast licking it inquiringly. She had got the line— not the hook, luckily— entangled round her tongue, and as soon as he attempted to reel up, had started off like a thing possessed. Eventually, by the aid of a rustic, she was cornered, and we managed to disentangle the knot. But the old gentleman was bo disturbed by the oocurren.ee, that he collected his various properties, and gave up fishing for the day, He bad learnt something all the same.— Field.