162 LOBSTER BAIT. [CHAP. iv. 



caged. Those who would induce crabs to enter their pots 

 must set them with fresh bait ; lobsters, on the other hand, 

 will look at nothing but garbage. Very frequently rock- 

 cod, saithe, and other fish, are found to have entered the 

 pots, intent both on foul and fresh food. Shell-fish for bait 

 can be taken by means of a wooden box or old wicker 

 basket sunk near a rocky place, and filled with garbage of 

 some kind ; the whelks and small crabs are sure to patron- 

 ise the mass extensively, and can thus be obtained at con- 

 venience. It is impossible to tell in the limits of a brief chapter 

 one-half of the fishing wonders that can be accomplished during 

 a sojourn at the seaside. A visit to some quaint old fishing 

 town, on the recurrence of " the year's vacation sabbath," as 

 some of our poets now call the annual month's holiday, might 

 be made greatly productive of real knowledge ; there are ten 

 thousand wonders of the shore which can be studied besides 

 those laid down in books. 



As will be noted, I have avoided as much as possible the 

 naming of localities, preferring to state the general practice. 

 In all seaside towns and fishing villages there are usually 

 three or four old fishermen who will be glad to do little 

 favours for the curious in fish lore to hire out boats, give the 

 use of tackle, and point out good localities in which to fish. 

 For such as have a few weeks at their disposal, I would sug- 

 gest the western sea-lochs of Scotland as affording superb 

 sport in all the varieties of sea-angling. Fish of all kinds, 

 great and small, are to be found in tolerable quantity, and 

 there is likewise the still greater inducement of fine scenery, 

 cheap lodgings, and moderate living expenses. But the entire 

 change of scene is the grand medicine ; nothing would do an 

 exhausted London or Manchester man more good than a 

 month on Lochfyne, where he could not only angle in the 

 great water for amusement, but also watch the commercial 

 fishers, and enjoy the finely-flavoured herring of that loch as a 



