280 GOBY HUNTING 



the anal, but being only of a slightly deeper shade of 

 brown than the ground colour, they are less conspicu- 

 ous. Altogether it is a pretty and attractive creature. 

 Meanwhile, however, we pursue our searching. 

 Stone after stone we turn over, discovering many 

 curious and interesting things starry Tunicates, 

 bright-hued Nudibranchs, errant Crabs, Stars, and 

 Urchins, and Sea-cucumbers, and multitudes of other 

 creatures well worthy of examination and preserva- 

 tion. Our capture of the Gunnel, however, makes us 

 eager for fishes, and we look out for more. Nor in 

 vain. Under a heavy block, which we succeed in 

 overturning only after several slips, there lies a huge 

 thick-set uncouth object, which makes such a splash- 

 ing that we cannot distinguish his form at all. We 

 have not much difficulty in securing him, for though 

 he makes a considerable pother, and stirs up not a 

 little cloud of mud from the bottom of the shallow 

 pool, we easily manage to place our hollowed hands 

 round him, and lift him bodily up. Very indignant 

 looks he as we drop him into the glass jar ; his eyes 

 goggle unutterable things at us, and his muscular tail 

 and broad caudal fin whisk from side to side with 

 wrathful energy as he flaps to and fro, and round and 

 round, making a tempest almost equal to that re- 

 nowned one " in a teapot," and quite discomfiting 

 the amazed Gunnel, his lithe and graceful co-tenant, 

 who is fain to perform undulatory evolutions at the 

 top of the jar, relinquishing the entire bottom to the 

 boisterous intruder. 



