DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 149 



light the moon was giving, so there was nothing 

 to do but take cheerfully the captain's order : 

 " Draw in your lines, we must make the entrance 

 to the bay while the light lasts." 



The rowing boats, with their lighter draught and 

 no need for tacking, fished until the changing tide 

 took the pilchards off and the pollack ceased to 

 rise. 



Our first day's fishing pleased everyone engaged, 

 and the pleasure of the brothers Vinnicombe was 

 added to by permission to take the spoils to Fal- 

 mouth market, to which they must have started 

 soon after daybreak, for when the early risers went 

 to bathe the Shag was gone. 



The space to be afforded for this outing and 

 then there is your patience, too will only permit 

 me to write of our most successful times with the 

 three principal methods we adopted, and of those 

 but briefly. 



It was after many days of trying that we satisfied 

 the captain with our catch of bream ; but then 

 nothing less than what would justify his going to 

 market satisfied him. One of these failures was 

 caused by the inability of members of the party 

 to withstand the motion of the Shag at anchor 

 when a ground swell rolled. On another occasion, 

 go where we would, nothing but wrasse and dog- 

 fish resulted. The wrasse, with their almost end- 

 less variety of colouring, are, when first landed, 

 a pretty sight, but when they have been in the 

 boat a little time and protrude from their vent a 

 walnut-sized bladder, as they invariably do, they 

 are not so handsome and, being disliked for food 

 in Cornwall, they did not count with us. Neither 



