28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



every turn. Dog-fish and cod-fish, and por- 

 poises, and seals, and otters preyed upon us 

 remorselessly, but the numbers of the four first, 

 at least, were greatly increased as we increased 

 our distance from the shore ; besides which, we' 

 lost those landmarks which gave us confidence 

 that we should one day be enabled to retrace 

 our steps, and saved us from the bewildering 

 sensation of being utterly lost. Few fish, once 

 driven out to sea, ever returned to our com- 

 pany; they were devoured, or perished from 

 want of proper food, or, if haply they reached 

 some unknown shore, wandered listlessly and 

 helplessly along it, seeking a stream or river 

 suitable to their wants, and, finding none, 

 perished miserably. 



" Great indeed is the wickedness and heavy 

 the responsibility of that greedy, selfish class 

 thank Heaven ! now at last a limited one 

 which, having acquired in some incomprehen- 

 sible manner the legal right of privately 

 destroying what ought to have been the most 

 cherished, as it is the most valuable, public 

 property, planted those accursed engines, the 

 stake-nets, along the coast and in the tideways 

 known as the highways most frequented by our 



