102 APRIL. 



excellence ; or, as the people here say, the sand shrimp, 

 to distinguish it from the prawn, which, as I have ob- 

 served, they call the rock shrimp. And this sand 

 shrimp finds a ready sale in the Torquay market ; the 

 fisherman getting, as he tells us, a shilling a quart from 

 the fishmongers. 



The horse, doubtless nothing loath, for his toil must 

 be great, wading on soft sand in three feet of water, and 

 dragging that heavy apparatus behind him, walks to 

 dry land, where, as soon as the keer-drag is ashore, the 

 man seizes it, cries "whow!" to the obedient animal, 

 and, having spread a cloth on the sand, proceeds to un- 

 tie the string, and pour out on the cloth the struggling 

 contents. " It is a very good haul," says the fellow ; 

 "there's more nor two quart there!" So, being in a 

 good humour, and naturally civil besides, we venture 

 to propound a bargain ; that, for a small coin of the 

 realm, we may be allowed to pick out all the " rubbish ;" 

 i.e., everything that is not a shrimp, and convey it to 

 our own private reservoirs ; a pleasant agreement for 

 both parties ; for the net gathers many curious creatures 

 of great interest to the naturalist, though of no value 

 whatever to the fisherman. Shrimps, however, are the 

 staple ; there are probably a hundred of these to one of 

 all other kinds, lumping these latter all together. And 

 very fine these shrimps are. Mr. Bell gives two inches 



