SUMMER HOURS ON BREYDON 123 



August, when they have been prowling about the flats, and 

 are known as "grass-fed butts." The winter " \*\&\.- darting " 

 is a laborious process, only followed now by an occasional 

 amateur, for the catches are small compared with those 

 obtained forty or fifty years ago, when "darting" was a 

 remunerative employment. The dart is a rake-like pronged 

 instrument, with seven or eight long barbs, and a spread of 

 two feet. A shaft at least twenty-four feet is necessary. 

 The boat drifts with the tide, and the fisherman mechanically 

 jabs his rude instrument up and down a few inches as he 

 floats. In frosty weather, from the continual running of 

 water up the shaft as it is held horizontally, in order to knock 

 off an impaled fish, a coating of ice will form so thickly that 

 it is almost impossible to grasp it. The fish die quickly, and 

 freeze as they struggle. This reads cold-blooded ; but is it 

 half as cruel and callous as the methods of an angler whose 

 fish, useless when obtained, die at the bottom of his boat by 

 inches ? 



It were best for me to confess at once that I enjoy the 

 recreation of a little summer " butt "-sticking ! Every sports- 

 man, I suppose, makes apology for the pain he inflicts upon 

 the particular section of the brute creation he delights to 

 torture ; but he does not always make public confession of it. 

 I like a bit of eel-picking too, although I do not wilfully 

 delight in causing pain to any living creature. The pork 

 butcher, least sentimental of all men, may perhaps have his 

 regretful moments ! I purpose for a page or two to take the 

 reader with me on a little " picking " excursion. You must 

 not mind the mud, so characteristic of Breydon and all 

 Norfolk waterways. It will be fun, although the poor 

 flounders might well say with the frogs, " What is fun to you 

 is death to us." 



Herons and great " grey " gulls closely study the habits of 

 the flounder, and account for hundredweights in the course 

 of a year ; they wade and paddle in the shallows, hunting 

 for them. Did you ever see a heron strike, seize, and then 

 attempt to swallow a fair-sized specimen ? If you have not, 

 you should do so ; you will see a rare display of craft, adroit- 

 ness, and contortion, and you will wonder that the fish, 

 whose progress down the bird's throat is distinctly seen, does 

 not choke, or that the stiff ventral spine on the flounder does 



