FROM LAND AND PIER 215 



minded person was stealing up silently behind me. I well 

 remember, one warm night in autumn, when the sheet lightning 

 kept flashing out from behind a great mass of clouds banked 

 up just above the horizon. The distant sea looked black, but 

 the undulations of the water suddenly whitened as they broke 

 on to the beach and came rushing up to my feet, drawing back 

 again over the sand and pebbles with a noise, half murmur, 

 half roar. 



Some distance beyond me little twinkling lights were 

 showing along the shore the lanterns of the men with the 

 throw-out lines. Great dark masses glided silently by over 

 the sea, and suddenly the revolving light, as it searched the 

 waters, caught one of them and revealed a big ship in full sail. 

 Then a steamer with saloon lights came by, and a lurid glare 

 went up as her fires were coaled. After she had passed, all 

 seemed doubly quiet and dark. The surf grew greater as the 

 tide flowed more strongly, and it was next to impossible to 

 keep the bait on the bottom, though I kept on increasing the 

 weights of my leads. In the words of a passing fisher lad, 

 'there was a great swipe on,' and the greater the 'swipe' 

 which in southern English means, I suppose, surf breaking in 

 the same direction as the strong tide which runs along the 

 shore the less useful the fishing. 



Codling are by no means the only fish to be caught from 

 sandy shores and beaches. There are always a few flat fish 

 available ; and big bass, for which in such places squid is an 

 excellent bait, often come cruising along, especially if near the 

 mouth of an estuary. For bass some sea fishermen prefer the 

 leger to the paternoster. This piece of tackle is clearly shown 

 in the illustration. The lead works on a piece of gimp, and 

 the chief peculiarity of the tackle is that when the fish seizes 

 the bait, instead of dragging the lead after him, he pulls the 

 line through a hole in the lead, while the angler who is holding 



