CH. VIII.] SPEARING FLAT-FISH. 107 



fish to take a shot at. Great numbers may be 

 caught in this way near the mouths of some of the 

 Devonshire rivers, amongst which I may mention 

 the Ernie and Teign, as being extremely well 

 adapted for the purpose, and affording abundance 

 of Flat-fish. 



When a boy, at a private tutor's not far from 

 the former, I used with a spear which I kept 

 hidden in some gorse near our bathing-place and 

 took into the water with me perhaps up to my 

 breast or chin in it to pick up a great many. I 

 remember on one occasion striking and securing 

 three at once. My plan for getting a good one off 

 the spear, as its barbs were not in first-rate 

 working order, was to insinuate my foot under the 

 fish, and getting a toe on each side of the prong 

 on which he was, to raise up foot and all until I 

 could reach it with my hand, and take him off, 

 when I pitched him on shore to wait until I came 

 out. 



Hugh Miller, in that very entertaining book 

 of his, My ScJwols and Schoolmasters, asserts that 

 Flat-fish have the power of changing their colour 

 at will, making it accord with that of the bottom 

 on which they may happen to be lying. He, 

 alas ! poor fellow, is no longer among us to throw 



