A DELIGHTFUL BATHE. 229 



So that wildest of waves in their angriest mood 



Scarce break on the bounds of the land for a rood ; 



And the powerless moon beholds them flow, 



Heedless if she come or go ; 



Calm or high, in main or bay, 



On their course she hath no sway. 



The rock unworn its base doth bare, 



And looks o'er the surf, but it comes not there ; 



And the fringe of the foam may be seen below, 



On the line that it left long ages ago, 



A smooth short space of yellow sand 



Between it and the greener land." 



I had not swum very far from the beach before I 

 found myself surrounded by some fifty or sixty human 

 heads, the bodies belonging to which were invisible, 

 and interspersed among these perhaps an equal number 

 of pairs of feet sticking out of the water. As I ap- 

 proached the spot, the entire scene became sufficiently 

 ludicrous and bewildering, more especially to one so 



lately 



" 'scaped the Stygian pool," 



and whose head was still filled with visions of Dante's 

 Inferno. Down went a head, up came a pair of heels 

 down went a pair of heels, up came a head ; and as 

 something like a hundred people were all diligently 

 practising the same manoeuvre, the strange vicissi- 

 tude from heels to heads, and heads to heels, going 

 on simultaneously, was rather a puzzling spectacle. 



On returning to the beach, after a most delicious 

 bathe, we were, of course, curious to inquire the 

 meaning of such unintelligible gambols, and soon 

 found out the cause of proceedings so mysterious. 

 It was the " sea-egg " fishery, and these were fisher- 



