SHELL FISH AND CONGER HUNTING, ETC 335 



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twine to tie up the claws of those monstrous big lobsters 

 we are going to catch. We must make up our minds to get 

 wet, so should dress accordingly ; an old pair of gymnasium 

 shoes, flannels, and a jersey there is no better attire for the 

 purpose. 



It must be the time of spring tides that is absolutely 

 essential or we shall get no lobsters, for 

 their holes are generally situated so near the 

 lowest low- water mark that they are not un- 

 covered at other times. Even then they are, 

 as often as not, a few inches below the sur- 

 face. How well I remember my first day's 

 crab hooking ! My tutor was a poet, and it 

 was a beautiful sight to see the kindly man 

 of verse slipping among the rocks, putting 

 his little iron hook into a hole here and a 

 hole there, sounding them for shell fish. 

 The tide was ebbing, and' just as we reached 

 the shore I saw a conger of several pounds 

 swimming slowly seaward adown a miniature 

 creek. I dashed at him with my hook, but 

 missed him. Again and again I struck 

 wildly, and finally brought him out on to 

 the rocks and hammered him until he was 

 a shapeless mass. I had tasted blood and 

 was ravening for more, but the poet said 

 it was no use to continue fishing until the tide was lower. So 

 we sat down and looked at the blue sea. 



Soon the poet strolled off, and presently came back with 

 a lobster a big one, but minus one claw and I think he also 

 had three prawns. Then we started wandering over the rocks, 

 trying every pool for prawns and every likely hole for crabs. 

 Lobster holes, which are a thing of themselves, were few the 



CRAB, LOBSTER, 



AND CONGER 



HOOKS 



