We had retrievers with us who would face the waves of an inland lake during a nor'-wester,--which is giving a dog very high praise indeed; but there was no canine Bayard at hand to brave those treacherous depths, and bring out our game, so the sport soon ceased; for what was the good of shooting the beautiful, harmless creatures when we could not make use of them as food?
I often accompanied F---- on his eel-fishing expeditions, but more for the sake of companionship than from any amusement I found in the sport.
I may here confess frankly that I cannot understand anyone being an inveterate eel-fisher, for of all monotonous pursuits, it is the most self-repeating in its forms.

Even the first time I went out I found it delightful only in anticipation; and this is the one midnight excursion which I shall attempt to re-produce for you.
It had been a broiling midsummer day, too hot to sit in the verandah, too hot to stroll about the garden, or go for a ride, or do anything in fact, except bask like a lizard in the warm air.

New Zealand summer weather, however high the thermometer, is quite different from either tropical or English heat.

It is intensely hot in the sun, but always cool in the shade.

I never heard of an instance of sun-stroke from exposure to the mid-day sun, for there always was a light air--often scarcely perceptible until you were well out in the open,--to temper the fierce vertical rays.