APPENDIX. 365 



living mass as far as the eye can reach ; with their heads towards 

 the land, they lie like a black line close in, each succeeding wave 

 dashing them on the beach, where, as the tide ebbs, they remain and 

 die. The seine, the cast-net, and the dip-net are being plied by the 

 busy fishermen, whose families are collecting the dead fish and 

 depositing them in heaps or in pits for manure. Sometimes the mass 

 is so dense that a boat is impeded in sailing through them, and in 

 dipping them up more fish than water are taken in a bucket. Num- 

 bers of the lively little tern wheel screaming through the air over the 

 school of fish, every now and then making a dash on their prey, 

 whilst out in the deep water lies the great army of codfish, ready to 

 feast on them as they return from the beach. In fact, as regards 

 their finny foes, every fish large enough to swallow them preys on the 

 caplin. Captain Murray, R.E., informed me that he had taken a 

 salmon with five, and a sea trout with two caplin in the stomach, the 

 latter being only 2 lbs. weight. A friend of his once thought he had 

 hooked a sea trout, but after a little play succeeded in landing a dead 

 caplin, to which the hook had affixed itself in the trout's mouth, the 

 latter being apparently too full to complete the act of swallowing. 



A scene of this description is exceedingly interesting, as I saw it 

 one deliciously warm sunny afternoon in July on the pebbly beach at 

 Topsail, near the head of Conception Bay. As we approached the 

 village from the road leading to St. John's the prospect from the top 

 of the last hill was charming. The neat little village at our feet, 

 with its fish stages and patches of garden, bounded by the rough, 

 barren, sandstone cliff's of Portugal Cove ; a pebbly beach in front, 

 dotted with groups of fishermen throwing their cast-nets over the 

 black patches which indicate the approaching beds of caplin ; the 

 activity prevailing on board the boats and schooners moored a few 

 yards off ; the men dipping up the fish, and throwing them over their 

 shoulders into their boats, formed a pleasing and animated foreground 

 to a picture where the distance was formed of the lofty blue moun- 

 tains across the bay, whilst in middle distance reposed the well 

 cultivated islands of Great and Little Belleisle. In the centre of the 

 bay was grounded a large iceberg, which lay melting away in torrents 

 under the influence of the hot July sun. 



Nothing could exceed the beauty of the iridescent colours of the 

 fish as I handled them fresh caught. The back of the male between 

 the ridges flashed from deep blue to emerald green as it caught the 

 light. The absence of timidity on the part of the fish was wonderful : 

 it seemed as if no amount of splashing over them by the heavily 



