3i6 ALONGSHORE v 



buoy clattered across deck. The dog's Interest 

 failed him. But the end was nowhere near. 



I think we snoozed, though always I could 

 hear the grinding of the capstan. 



Dawn came with a darkening of the misty 

 waters to indigo, and a greyness in the eastern 

 sky. Soon the heavens lit up. The combers 

 shone with a greenish glow. Etaples light went 

 out; and it seemed afterwards that the sea was a 

 lonelier place. The loom of the coast was hardly 

 visible. 



The haullng-in continued. 



Some of the drifters within sight, which car- 

 ried fewer nets or had started hauling earlier, 

 steamed and sailed off home. A sailing-drifter 

 near us brought up several of her nets foul. She 

 had to help herself as best she could. 



Our own nets were coming in without inter- 

 ruption, some of them brilliant with fish in the 

 early morning daylight, others empty for fathoms 

 at a stretch. The gale increased in force — wildish 

 weather; but the steam-capstan went on hauling 

 the net in as steadily as ever. The Marie-Marthe 

 plunged and rolled; a greater number of herrings 

 were washed out of the nets before they could be 

 got Inboard. That was all. 



