The Pedometer
Among the knick-knacks that I have hardly ever used is a pcdometer,which, although I am not-sure when it was invented and perfected, always seems to me to be a Victorian sort of instrument—Victorian because I associate it with deliberate, methodical walking with never a point of interest missed, never a monument overlooked and never a mom( neglected. For the first time in years I took out the pedometer and clipped it in my thigh pocket. It would, I thought, give me some indication of how far I wander when fishing. It was a naive thought this. I had forgotten one or two things that the precise and methodical person who might use a pedo- meter would never have forgotten. I forgot that I had not regulated the mechanism to my stride but, worse still, I forgot that I have the habit of struggling over the roughest terrain for miles. When I came wearily home at evening I quietly took out the pedometer and looked at it. It seems that in eight hours I walked sixty-three miles— which is a remarkable feat even on the part of a fisherman used to expanding and enlarging feats of a different sort. I felt more tired than usual that evening and decided to leave the instrument at home in future.
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