230 ON THE NORMANDY COAST. 



skill is necessary ; an amateur, after an hour's practice, 

 will catch as many of the agile and graceful crustaceans 

 as a veteran fisherman. In fact, shrimping is pursued as 

 a pastime at many of our watering-places. The Rams- 

 gate holiday people make excursions for this purpose to 

 Pegwell Bay ; and having caught their shrimps, according 

 to Mrs. Glasse's famous injunction, boil them, and eat 

 them. The regular shrimper, however, does not confine 

 himself to the shallow waters which bathe the sandy 

 shore, but keeps a boat, and frequents the more distant 

 sand-banks, where, of course, the shoals are more numer- 

 ous, and his spoil is greater. 



We borrow from a French author an interesting ac- 

 count of the shrimp-fishery at Chausey, on the coast of 

 Normandy. 



An old boat, turned upside down, at the foot of a 

 weather-worn crag forms the roof of the fisher's cabin ; it 

 rests upon four walls of stones rudely piled together, and 

 embedded in clay for cement. Here, in a space of from 

 four to twelve feet square, and three feet nine inches 

 high, sleeps a whole family ; father and mother, sons and 

 daughters, nephews and nieces, and often too some male 

 and female friends, attracted by the occurrence of a high 

 tide. The men fish for lobsters ; the shrimp-fishery, as 

 less arduous, being abandoned to the women. Armed 

 with their " putting-nets," and with petticoats looped up 

 to the knees, and high Normandy caps covering their 

 unkempt locks, they explore the windings of the sandy 

 archipelago ; groping under the rocks, and wading through 

 the pools, and collecting, if they are industrious, as much 

 as five to six pounds weight in a day. This fishery, how- 



