V FISHING-GROUNDS 301 



and climbing about while they were hauling the 

 nets in, and fell head first among the herrings. 

 Mon dieuy what a mess!' 



After we had steamed for nearly two hours, 

 crossing the nets of several other drifters which 

 were riding lumpily to it outside of us, small 

 quantities of coffee were brought round in very 

 large and rather battered tin mugs. 'Or would 

 you rather have beer?' they asked. 'There is a 

 barrel of beer on deck for any one to drink who 

 likes. Very good beer in this boat.' We were 

 come to the fishing ground, about twenty miles to 

 the south-west of Boulogne and ten miles or so 

 from the high scarred sand-hills of the coast. It 

 was the Boulogne home-ground, as one might say, 

 and the fishery on it lasts at its height only for a 

 week or ten days at the beginning of November, 

 after which the herrings move farther west, and 

 are followed as far as Havre. 'And west of 

 Havre?' I inquired. 



'Don't know,' said the man who was talking 

 to us. 'I have nev^er fished there.' 



A W'Ooden roller about a couple of yards long 

 was rigged up on the port gunwale alongside the 

 net-hold. The Marie-Marthe's engines were put 

 as slowly as possible astern, for the wind, now 



