AMONGST THE SEA-BIRDS. 225 



found his appetite, and when Peter announced dinner, great 

 was the consumption of roast beef and puddings, albeit the 

 latter was an inch and a-half thick, and yellow enough to have 

 terrified a robust landsman who had never known dyspepsia. 

 At sea, with the old Greek " ox-hunger " upon one, such trifles 

 are never considered, and all viands taste equally excellent. 

 On the horizon we now saw a good example of sea mirage, the 

 distant vessels seeming much larger and looming distorted in 

 the haze. The phenomenon is not unknown in the fens, where 

 the vast flats lend themselves to such optical illusions as readily 

 as the wide sea horizon. Next we pass several dandy-rigged 

 Yarmouth cutters going up to the herring fishery off the Tyne. 

 These are wonderfully stiff sea-boats, and sailed as steadily as 

 a rock, while their inmates leaned against the side enjoying the 

 spell of idleness, or smoking innumerable pipes, near the booms 

 rigged out astern, partly to clear the decks, and partly to steady 

 the vessel. All these fishing vessels have a wonderful similarity, 

 and their sailors in oilskins and sou'westers might all belong to 

 one family. Most inland readers must have noticed pictures 

 of them in full sail on the side of the Yarmouth herring paste 

 tins ; they are characteristic features on the north-eastern coast. 

 The heavily-laden iron screw-colliers labouring away in the 

 offing, the weather-bound Grimsby smacks, the trading vessels 

 and tugs, greatly diversified the sea ; while on the coast, as we 

 successively ran past the different watering-places, their visitors 

 could be seen walking and riding on the sands. Every now 

 and then, too, we shot past fishing parties from Withernsea or 

 Hornsea, some returning home, and many of them looking 

 sufficiently cadaverous to claim our pity ; others yet anchored, 

 and fishing with all the zeal peculiar to the lover of this sport, 

 whether he seek to capture a Tweed salmon or Thames 

 gudgeon. Anon a busy tug meets us, disgorging volumes of 

 smoke, so that Captain Try, terrified for his spruce masts, 

 gladly goes to windward of her. She is towing a huge raft of 



