260 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



warm imagination was an agreeable substitute 

 for unromantic accuracy. " Some fishermen/' 

 wrote such an observer in the Sporting Magazine 

 for May, 1820, " lately trawling in Emsworth 

 " Harbour, caught a fish called the ' lioness.' 

 ' The resemblance it bears to that animal is in 

 " its claws and the roar of its voice. With a 

 ' ' mouth full of teeth, its tongue is like a Newfound- 

 " land dog's ; the tail spreads like a fan, and when 

 " expanded is ten inches wide." 



The foregoing is a fairly reasonable impressionist 

 picture of a seal, but to class it as anything but 

 a fish would rob it of all interest. 



I wish that this gifted writer might have en- 

 countered a spada in the half-light. Its tender 

 face would have tested the resources of even his 

 vocabulary. 



But I leave my muraena. Unlike the spada, 

 which has to be caught on long handlines in deep 

 water, he lurks among the rocks near low-water 

 mark ; nor would I, having seen him exorcised, 

 wade among those foam-flecked pools in the 

 twilight for a boatload of new-minted dollars, for 

 the creature has its share of sharp teeth and is 

 imbued with a determined ferocity in attacking 

 its food, before which even Sandow himself might 

 quail barefooted. 



So repulsive a child of the waters might well be 

 eft undisturbed, were it not that its capture is 



