Curiosities of natural history. 3rd series / by Frances T. Buckland.

  • Francis Trevelyan Buckland
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of natural history. 3rd series / by Frances T. Buckland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    besides which, sir, you could never have touched him, the smell was terrible.” “ Smell,” said I. I know how to tackle a smell— Condy’s fluid is the stuff. Besides, what do I care for smell, when there is a chance of a good preparation ? ” “ I don’t want to excite you, sir,” said the keeper ; ‘‘ but we caught once in the net three jack that weighed fifty-three pounds; the keeper at , some six miles below, has got a jack in a pond that’s waiting till he is wanted for the house, close on twenty-three pounds, and he found a dead one last winter that was pretty nearly as big as that found in Mr. Bill’s water.” “ You have a good many jack in this stew sometimes, keeper ?” “ Yes, we have, sir, and I will tell you a curious thing : One day I put in a jack that had a gorge-hook in him, for the gimp was just sticking out of his mouth. I did not take him again for six months, and when I came to look at him I could not find the hook at all. As I was cleaning him, something hard struck against the edge of the knife, and I found it was the gorge-hook that had worked itself right through him, and was nearly coming out. It was quite loose in the intestine, and did not seem to have injured the fish, for he was in good condition, and I know he fed while he was in the ])ond. I think the jack eat the eels in the summer time (tliere are plenty of them about) ; and as good a bait as