FRENCH FISHERMEN. 65 



To kill them, "it's no use knocking them on their great 

 heads, no more than a great hull ; just hit 'em a sharp 

 smack on the belly, and that turns 'em up directly, 

 because all their blood lays there." 



One of the fishermen, George Smith, caught a 

 " ^Yhacker " last year. "When he hauled the line he 

 thoug]it " he had got hold of a "\^Teck," but he managed 

 to pull him up gently to the side of the boat, and whip 

 the *' heaf " into him. He "kicked up Mag's diversion" 

 in the boat, and nearly got out again ; so Smith tied 

 him by the *' beckett " to the thwart of the boat with a 

 new French whiting line, which Master Conger broke 

 three times. Smith himself, who is a very powerful 

 man, tried afterwards to break the same whiting line, 

 but could not. This conger measured 8 feet within an 

 inch, and was 26 mches in girth at his fins. He was 

 sent off to London directly in a "kitten," or fish- 

 hamper, all to himself. 



One day a French fishing-boat came into Folkestone 

 from Portelle, near Boulogne, the weather being too 

 rough for them ; they had a few small congers on 

 board, and I observed that they had been baitmg their 

 " snoods " with the arms of cuttle-fish cut into bits. 

 They called all Englishmen " John," and when I went 

 to talk to them a red-nightcapped fellow held up a dog- 

 fish, and said in broken English, " Vil you buy a dog, 

 John ? " I did not buy the dog, but I got a conger's 

 head for threepence. The Frenchmen turned out of 

 their boats in the afternoon, and boiled the conger's 

 body on the beach, putting sundiy odd scra]3S of fish 

 into their pot as well. As a bystander said, " There's^ 

 very little fish as them chaps heaves away ; they eats 

 a'most anything." 



Congers are exceedingly sensitive to fi-ost. Dr. 



6 



