rd,
Like THE MACKINTOSH, monarch of Moy,
Redoubtable General OI.

Anyhow, with so striking a name
You'd be sure of success if you came
To our shores, and might get an invite
To Elmwood to stay for the night,
And sit for your portrait to "POY,"
Irresistible General OI.

So here's to you, excellent chief,
Whose name is so tunefully brief.
May your rule be productive of peace,
Like that of our good _Captain Reece_,
And no murmur, no [Greek: otototoi]
Be raised over General OI!

* * * * *

THE BRITISH TARPON.

_By our Piscatorial Expert._

I have read with great interest, tempered by a little disappointment, the
article of Mr. F.A. MITCHELL-HEDGES on "Big Game Fishing in British
Waters," in _The Daily Mail_ of September 1st. He tells us of his
experiences in catching the "tope," a little-known fish of the shark genus
which may be caught this month at such places as Herne Bay, Deal, Margate,
Ramsgate, Brighton and Bournemouth, where he has captured specimens
measuring 7-1/2 feet long within two hundred-and-fifty yards of the shore.

Personally I have a great respect for the tope and for the topiary art, but
I cannot help regretting that Mr. MITCHELL-HEDGES has omitted all mention
of another splendid fish, the stoot, which visits our shores every year in
the late summer and may be caught at places as widely distant as Barmouth
and Great Yarmouth, Porthcawl and Kylescue.

The stoot, be it noted, is a cross between the porpoise and the cuttle-
fish; hence its local name of the porputtle. It is a clean feeder, a great
fighter and a great delicacy, tasting rather like a mixture of the
pilchard, the anchovy and the Bombay duck.

For tackle I recommend a strong greenheart bamboo pole, like those used in
pole-jumping, about eighteen feet in length, and about three hundred yards
of wire hawser, with a Strathspey foursome reel sufficiently large to hold
it. Do not be afraid of the size of the hook. The stoot-fisher cannot
afford to take any risks. I do not wish to dogmatise, but it must be big
enough to cover the bait. And the stoot is extremely voracious. Almost
anything will do for bait, if one remembers, as I have said above, that the
stoot is a clean feeder. At different times I have tried a large square of
corridor soap, a simulation pancake, three pounds of tough beefsteak or
American bacon, or a volume of Sir HENRY HOWORTH'S _History of the
Mongols_, an