Well, to my fish story. I had been anchored for about two hours near Rocher Rouge fishing for conger, of which I had caught three small ones, beside several rock fish and whiting, when I thought I would try another kind of bait, so I armed my hook with a small ormer, which being of a gristly texture, held on the barb well. Over the side went the gear, attached to a strong line of thick water-cord, and although it was down a considerable time no warning tug gave hope of sport to follow, so I busied myself with the other two lines I had down, with a fair amount of success. At length getting tired of taking nothing on my big line, I thought I would coil it up and examine the bait, but when I had got the line straight up and down it refused to leave the bottom, tug as I would. I pulled till my canoe danced and bobbed about in an alarming manner, in fact, till the coaming was in danger of going under the gently heaving sea, but to no purpose; it would not budge, so tripping anchor I paid out line and paddled fifty yards, thinking that if my hook had fouled a rock I might by a side pull clear it. I hauled in gently, and to my surprise found the line come in with a curious vibrating motion, in little jerks, till it got straight up and down again, and then I had a hard pull to get it from the bottom; but still I did get it up little by little, and was now positive that it was a fish of some kind, and of great weight. Foot after foot of line came in very spasmodically, and with great reluctance, till at last a great, ugly, slimy head, with yellow-green eyes, came above the surface, and so large did it appear, that it quite took me aback. In my surprise I let go several coils of the line before I knew what I was about. The head was enormous and _ex pede Hercules_. I knew the body must be of gigantic proportions too. That I had hooked one of Neptune's fiends seemed certain, and I was some time before I hauled up again to see really what I had captured. In came the line again, foot by foot, with great difficulty, till at length up came the terrible head again. But this time I was prepared, and setting my teeth, held on. It was a huge conger, such as I had never seen before, and which came very near being the last I might gaze upon, for suddenly it brought its tail up over the outrigger, and before I could counterbalance my craft, seemed to swamp the canoe by its dead weight and the power of its fins. I was in the water in a second, but never loosened my hold of the line. Letting go the loose coils I struck out for Rocher Rouge, only some fifty yards away, and, landing at the foot of the great granite throne, commenced to haul in my line. To my joy the canoe, which still floated with its coamings out of water, although the well was full, followed my line. I afterwards ascertained that in falling overboard I had dropped between the canoe and outrigger, and had thus drawn the line through the intervening space after me. To this fact I owed the recovery of my