206 THE SEA. 



country, which had been brought down for the purpose of carrying- away loads of them to 

 distances of many miles. This was a well-known season of scarcity, and, without this 

 resource, I believe it is not too much to say that many individuals must have died for want/' 



One of the easiest forms of collecting is from the debris, as it were, of fishermen's nets 

 and baskets ; but it is exceedingly difficult to induce trawlers to bring home any of their 

 " rubbish." Money, that in general " makes the mare to go " in any direction you wish, 

 seems to have lost its stimulating power when the duty to be performed, the quid pro quo, 

 is the putting a shovelful of "rubbish" into a bucket of water instead of jerking it overboard. 

 No, they haven't got time. You try to work on their friendship ; you sit and chat with 

 them, and think you have succeeded in worming yourself into their good graces sufficiently 

 to induce them to undertake the not very onerous task of bringing in a tub of " rubbish." 



The thing is not, however, utterly hopeless. Occasionally Mr. Gosse had a tub of 

 (t rubbish " brought to him ; but much more generally worthless than otherwise. The boys 

 are sometimes more open to advances than the men, especially if the master carries his 

 own son with him, in which case the lad has a little more opportunity to turn a penny 

 for himself than when he is friendless. "If ever," says Gosse, "you should be disposed 

 to try your hand on a bucket of trawler's ' rubbish/ I strongly recommend you, in the 

 preliminary point of ' catching your hare,' to begin with the cabin-boy. 



" The last basketful I overhauled made an immense heap when turned out upon a 

 board, but was sadly disappointing upon examination. It consisted almost entirely of one 

 or two kinds of hydroid zoophytes, and these of the commonest description. It does 

 not follow hence, however, that an intelligent and sharp-eyed person would not have 

 succeeded in obtaining a far greater variety ; a score of species were doubtless brushed 

 overboard when this trash was bundled into the basket ; but being small, or requiring to 

 be picked out singly, they were neglected, whereas the long and tangled threads of the 

 Plnmularia falcata could be caught up in a moment like an armful of pea-haulm in a field, 

 its value being estimated, as usual with the uninitiated, by quantity rather than by quality, 

 by bulk rather than variety." 



Mr. Gosse found on several occasions when examining the contents of shrimpers' nets, 

 a pretty little flat-fish, a constant inhabitant of sandy beaches and pools, and often found 

 in company with shrimps, some of which it hardly exceeded in size, although sometimes 

 reaching a maximum growth of four or five inches. Small as it is, it is allied to the 

 magnificent turbot. The naturalist above mentioned took it home, and observed its 

 habits at leisure. " In a white saucer," says he, " it was a charming little object, though 

 rather difficult to examine, because, the instant the eye with the lens was brought near, it 

 flounced in alarm, and often leaped out upon the table. When its fit of terror was over, 

 however, it became still, and would allow me to push it hither and thither, merely waving 

 the edges of its dorsal and ventral fins rapidly as it yielded to the impulse." This is the 

 Top-knot, so called from an elongation of the dorsal fin. The little Sand Launce, with its 

 pearly lustrous sides, is a commonly-found fish on the shore. It has a remarkable projection 

 of the lower jaws, a kind of spade, as it were, by the aid of which it manages to scoop out 

 a bed in the wet sand, and so lie hidden. The Lesser Weever, called by English fishermen 

 Sting-bull, Sting-fish, and Sea-cat, because of its power of inflicting severe inflammatory 



