INTRO D UCTOR Y 1 9 



of it. The wind had suddenly lulled, and the water, though 

 glassy and calm, was rising and falling very much after the 

 fashion of stage billows manufactured, I believe, by means of 

 a strip of sheeting, the ends of which are held at the flies by 

 two men and waved violently up and down. By great good 

 luck a breeze at last reached us, and by its assistance 

 we were able to get the boat close to the island, where 

 we lowered our sails and rowed along the shore, taking advan- 

 tage of every piece of slack water. About a month after this 

 little incident I was coming home from fishing one night in a 

 pilot's lugger. There was nothing on board in which to bring 

 the fish up to the house except the ship's only bucket, and the 

 pilot's nephew was about to use it for this purpose when the 

 old man stopped him sternly and exclaimed, ' No ! not for a 

 hundred pounds shall that bucket again go out of the boat ! ' 



That a Welshman should decline a hundred pounds 

 assuming it had been offered him for the temporary use of 

 a bucket, was odd. The next day I ascertained the reason of 

 the old man's apparent eccentricity. One day, when beating 

 about in Caldy Roads, he sighted a ship which was flying a 

 signal for a pilot. There was a stiff breeze blowing, and nothing 

 more is required to create a big sea off the Point. But the 

 lugger was staunch, and her skipper had often been through 

 the race before and thought little of it. However, this time he 

 shipped a big sea which half filled the boat, and, to his horror, 

 found there was absolutely nothing on board with which to 

 empty her. The little vessel, though quite large enough, had 

 no pump, and the bucket had been left behind. She all but 

 foundered. Hence the extraordinary value placed upon the 

 ship's bucket. 



A good deal of fishing is carried on from reefs of rocks 

 which are exposed at low water or otherwise ; and it frequently 

 happens that towards the end of the reef the rocks are rather 



