CH. VII.] LADY-BIRDS AT SEA. 99 



on the last occasion), besides some other fish. On 

 the previous day we had caught exactly half the 

 number, twelve dozen and ten. The fish bit most 

 freely when the tide ran so hotly that we could 

 scarcely " hold bottom," and they came whirling 

 up against the current two at a time as if they 

 were spinning-baits that we were using for larger 

 fish. 



On that day I noticed vast numbers of Lady- 

 birds drifting along by us with the tide to the 

 eastward as we lay at anchor. Where they had 

 come from, or where they were going to when they 

 fell into the water, it is not very easy to conjec- 

 ture. There was no wind where we were, and the 

 actual surface of the sea was of an oily stillness : 

 a long swell was, however, plainly discernible, prov- 

 ing that at no great distance there had been a 

 good deal of wind, which might have driven them 

 off shore, or, what is more probable, caught them 

 whilst in the act of changing their quarters en 

 masse and beaten them down into the sea. 



The best dress that I know for boat-work in 

 wet weather consists of a pair of macintosh over- 

 halls made to tie round the waist, a light cape of 

 the same material, about thirty inches long, and 

 an oil-skin wide-awake. The overalls should be 



H2 



