Year: 1875

BAILEY, who is still travelling in Eu-
rope, has discovered that Aberdeen Is II
great place for fish, and writes to his
paper in the following strain:


Aberdeen is largely interested in
fisheries, fact that is impressed upon
the visitor very soon after his arrival.
But To see the fisheries in their full cN-
tent he must 90 down To the water. In
the season the fish ncighbOrhood is
busy and lOud-Smelling place. take
great interest in such matters. We are
ALWAYS the most concerned about that
which We understand The least. Besides,
like to see fish caught in quantities, a
pleasure ] was denied when Was fish
erman; and again | am Interested in
knowing how enormous quantities of fish
are handled without SmOthering the
neighburs. When | was a boy | WAS
passionately fond of fishing, and have
frequently sat for hours on damp bank
waiting for a bite About sundown !
could be seen approaching home with a
very depressed and siCk-lOOking fish on
the end of two yards of string.


rarely had more than one FISH, but !
managed to become so imbued with that
single fish as TO smell as if | caught
ton Of them. My parents could never
look upon this phenomenon as being
other than a malicious deception on my
part And little brother with a better
nose than heart used to declare that if
he had to sleep with me he would run
away and be a corSair


\ good cOrSair gets about 80 day
and his board, understand


The fish | used To carry home on the
end of two yards OF string were general
ly ABOUT two and a halr inches long. The
reflection that weighed heavily upon me
all the way home was the fact that the
fish had to he cleaned before | could
dispose of it, and that | had to clean H.
This finally inspired me with a dislike
to my prey and led me to wonder why
fish were provided with inSidcs and
scales. On reaching home and diSpoSing
of cold supper | hunted up "a clean
board, got the largest knife to he found
in the house and began the task in the
kitchen by the light of a kerosene lamp.
First [ went 10 work at the scales, hold
ing on 10 the tail until that gave Oat, and
then catching hold of the body until the
tension caused the fish to burst open
and spill all over me. Sometimes the
fish would slip into the sink, but more
frequently on the floor At the expira-
tion OF = quarter OF an hour | had re
moved some fifteen scales, ten Of
which were mp my sleeve and
the others on my nose, being trans
ferred from my hand to that feature
while engaged i'll rubbing my eye, which
invariably itched upon such an OCCASION
About this time my mother would make
her appearance, and Just in time to see
the kerosene lamp narrowly escape going
over the floor. With the help of pair
of tOngs ! was induced to transfer my
operations TO the back yard and continue
them in the starlight Here / would
struggle with the contrary and axasper-
ating fish for a full hour, at the end of
which time had screwed off lis head,
and wrenched away It's tail, and made its
body look like Lazarus shirt. The next
morning an hour would be lost in pre-
vailing upon the hired girl to smuggle my
fish into the fryingpan, and it eventually
came TO the table an inch long, and hook
ing so insignificant that my father quite
frequently took it down by accident, and
didn't find out the error until the spare
scales got in his windpipe and threatened
to Straugle him.