ombat between a dolphin
and a Bombay duck, in which the latter came off second-best. And
some thirty years later, during a yachting excursion off the
Scilly Isles, I saw an even more remarkable duel between a
porbeagle--as the Cornish people call the mackerel-shark--and a
pipit, in which, strange to relate, the bird came off victorious.

Believe me to be, Sir,

Yours truthfully,

CONSTANTINE PHIBSON.

_Tara, Diddlebury_.

DEAR SIR,--When I was an undergraduate at Cambridge in the
'sixties a "Limerick" was current which began as follows:--

"There was an adventurous sole
Which swallowed an albatross whole."

Unfortunately I cannot remember the conclusion of the stanza, nor
am I able to state whether it was founded on fact or was merely an
ebullition of lyrical fancy. In the latter case the lines are
a striking instance of the prophetic power of minstrelsy, and
justify the use of the word "_vates_," or seer, as applied to
poets by the ancient Romans.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Yours faithfully,

SEPTIMUS BOWLONG.

_Rougemont Villa, Crookhaven._

DEAR SIR,--The halibut-cormorant episode has attracted undue
attention, since many similar but far more extraordinary incidents
have occurred during the War, but have passed unrecorded owing
to the claims of Bellona. I will confine myself to one which was
witnessed by my daughter Anna in course of bathing at Sheringham
in August, 1917. While swimming underwater she collided with a
middle-sized sea-serpent, which was evidently in difficulties and
made its way to the beach, where it expired. The post-mortem,
which was conducted by Professor Darcy Johnson, F.R.S., revealed
that the serpent had been choked by a gigantic gooseberry, which
had formed part of the cargo of a Greenland tramp torpedoed by an
enemy submarine. The serpent was actually being stuffed when a
bomb dropped by a Zeppelin blew it into infinitesimal smithereens,
to the profound disappointment of the Professor and my daughter
Anna, who has never been quite the same woman since. Permit me to
subscribe myself

Yours faithfully,

ALEXANDER NIAS.

_Steep Hill, Cramlington._

DEAR SIR,--There is nothing surprising in the story of a halibut
devouring a cormorant. As you will see from consulting _Murray_,
hali