LONGSHORE MEMORIES 205 
tide 'ull take him to when it turns to the big sluice 
it 'ull take him, see if it don't.' 
We shudder as we think of the place, with its 
massive piles and gates covered with sea-weeds and 
tangle ; a place you would not want to look at twice, 
when the tide was out. Imagine a gully twelve feet 
deep, reaching to the base of the sea-wall, the sides 
of it for a long distance lined with great piles trees 
pointed at one end and driven down into the ooze 
thirty feet or more. Even with these you could see 
the rush and wear of the tide : a grim place to look 
at ! likely to give you the nightmare. At low-water 
you could see great eels twisting about, and crabs, 
those useful but ferocious scavengers, scuttling about 
sideways, in search of food. A gruesome place, 
shunned by all of us lads, especially at night, bold 
though we were ; for we knew what had been found 
there more than once. 
About two hours after the tide had gone down the 
heavy tread of fishermen in their great boots rang on 
the pavement. They had found him in the big sluice. 
From that time we avoided the spot more than ever. 
To this day memory brings the picture of it all often 
vividly before my eyes. 
A curious thing happened when I was a boy, which 
I have never seen mentioned anywhere. Hundreds 
