SOME REMARKS ON FOREGOING CHAPTERS 269 



paraphernalia being provided, many bright, hot days can 

 be passed in paddling gently round the rocky coast while 

 searching the depths of its remarkably clear waters. The 

 spear will bring skate, flounders, and often other fish to the 

 surface, while the net will fetch up oysters, sea urchins, or 

 various other dainties or curiosities of the deep. In this way 

 I speared two Jieavy fish, one a skate of forty-seven pounds,* 

 which was only secured after a hard tussle, while the other 

 was a curious marine monster called the Angler Fish, but 

 known to the natives as the Fishing Frog. It had an 

 enormous mouth, with a protruding under jaw, armed with 

 sharp teeth. The head was out. of all proportion to the thick- 

 ness of the body, while from the centre of it grew a long 

 tapering tendon, not unlike the thin end of a lady's riding- 

 whip, which terminated in a black tuft hanging over the 

 mouth of the frog. It is said small fish take this tuft for 

 something to eat, and on approaching to inspect it they are 

 at once snapped up by the great jaws below it. 



We estimated this fish to scale between twenty and twenty- 

 five pounds, but the immense head, when compared with the 

 small lanky body, made it difficult to judge with accuracy, 

 for that day we had not a steelyard with us, and since then 

 I have often regretted not having had the monster preserved. 

 It did not in the least heed the boat being over it, as for more 

 than an hour I watched in the hope of seeing a fish caught, 

 but to my great regret this did not happen ; then when the 

 light began to fail the spear was used. 



With regard to the otters, many of them have seaside 

 residences as well as river ones, and in the middle of the first 

 and last quarters of the moon, when the neap tides occur, their 

 bolt holes into the sea are left so much uncovered that they 

 have to cross a yard or two of dry ground before reaching 

 the water. On days of this sort it is indeed good sport to 



* This is a small Skate for the West Coast, where they run up to one hundred 

 pounds in weight, and even more. 



