NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



many of these Dianas of the shore as keen sports- 

 women as their classical prototype, but they are equally 

 as bold and adventurous. Good prawning rocks afford 

 by no means easy locomotion ; they are covered with 

 slippery weed, and abound in treacherous holes and 

 yawning gullies. Yet I have seen during this last 

 summer or two plenty of girls taking their risks as 

 gaily as their tougher and stronger mankind, and 

 accepting falls, bruises, and occasionally nasty gashes 

 of the legs with really admirable good humour and 

 courage. Nay, more than once have I witnessed a 

 Sussex girl pick herself up from almost complete 

 immersion in a deep rock pool with no more ado than 

 if she had been taking a paddle along the sands in a 

 few inches of water. 



There are, as the reader may, or may not, be aware, 

 many kinds of prawn, mostly designated by naturalists 

 under the general Palcemon^ PandaluSy and Hippolyte. 

 They are, of course, closely allied to the shrimps, and 

 first cousin of the lobsters and that ilk. They vary very 

 much in size, some of the tropical forms being monsters 

 attaining more than a foot in length. Think of it, 

 British shore-fishers, a prawn of more than twelve 

 inches ! The particular crustacean most familiar to 

 English prawners is Palcemon serratus^ well known by 

 the serrated horn or rostrum projecting from the front 

 of the head. 



The right time to prawn is during the two hours 

 at the turn of the low tide, that is, the hour when the 

 tide recedes to its lowest ebb and the hour in which 

 it turns and begins to rise again. Two methods of 

 fishing are commonly in use — one with the pole or 

 spoon-net, the other with the gin-net. With the former 

 the fisherman must be prepared to wade up to his 

 waist, exploring the pools and gullies, and poking 



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