378 THE ART OF DREDGING. [CHAP. vin. 



neighbourhood of the saltpans. It is a large fine-flavoured 

 oyster, as good as any "native" that ever was brought to 

 table, the Pooldoodies of Burran not excepted. The men of 

 Cockenzie derive a good portion of their annual income from 

 the oyster traffic. The pursuit of the oyster, indeed, forms a 

 phase of fisher life there as distinct as at Whitstable. The 

 times for going out to dredge are at high tide and low tide. 

 The boats used are the smaller-sized ones employed in the 

 white fishery. The dredge somewhat resembles in shape a 

 common clasp-purse ; it is formed of net-work, attached to a 

 strong iron frame, which serves to keep the mouth of the in- 

 strument open, and acts also as a sinker, giving it a proper 

 pressure as it travels along the oyster-beds. When the boat 

 arrives over the oyster-scalps, the dredge is let down by a 

 rope attached to the upper ring, and is worked by one man, 

 except in cases where the boat has to be sailed swiftly, when 

 two are employed. Of course, in the absence of wind recourse 

 is had to the oars. The tension upon the rope is the signal 

 for hauling the dredge on board, when the entire contents are 

 emptied into the boat, and the dredge returned to the water. 

 These contents, not including the oysters, are of a most hetero- 

 geneous kind stones, sea-weed, star-fish, young lobsters, 

 crabs, actinse all of which are usually returned to the water, 

 some of them being considered as the most fattening ground- 

 bait for the codfish. The whelks, clams, mussels, and cockles, 

 and occasionally the crabs, are used by the fishermen as bait 

 for their white-fish lines'. Once, in a conversation with a 

 veteran dredger as to what strange things might come in the 

 dredge, he replied, " Well, master, I don't know what sort o' 

 curiosities we sometimes get ; but I have seen gentlemen like 

 yourself go out with us a-dredgin', and take away big baskets 

 full o' things as was neither good for eating or looking at. 

 The Lord knows what they did with them." During the 

 whole time that this dredging is being carried on, the crew 



