ii2 A DAY]S GROUND-FISHING. 



exclaimed Rogers, ' that 'ull hold us till all's blue, and the cows 

 comes home in the morning ' an old saying amongst seamen, 

 sufficiently intelligible as regards the hue of the ocean, but not 

 exactly clear respecting the holding power of killick stones or 

 anchors hi connection with any species of the bovine genus. It 

 would indeed be a curious subject of study to trace out the 

 origin of the sayings of seamen, many of which are doubtless of 

 a remote antiquity, quaint, terse, expressive, and as much sui 

 generis as might be expected from a class of men forming, so to 

 speak, a nationality of their own. 



But to proceed. A number of heavy intermittent tugs were 

 felt on one of the lines, and much curiosity was expressed as to 

 the cause. A merry laugh went round the boat, as a pair of 

 dirty-looking speckled Dog-fish came on board with snake-like 

 contortions, and were dropped into the bottom of the boat, 

 only to be immolated on the altar of enraged fishermen, who in 

 most cases, as in the present, setting one foot on the head and 

 another on the tail, divide the vertebrae at the neck, and then 

 throw them overboard to be devoured by either the finny or 

 crustacean inhabitants of the deep. 



We took also some three or four specimens of the Wrasse, 

 or Rock-fish, one of the common kind (Labrus rupestris), and 

 one or two of the variegated sorts having, from the brilliancy 

 of their colours, the appearance of painted fish, namely the 

 three spotted (Labrus trimaculatus], and the Cook or Cuckoo- 

 Wrasse, of which the blue marks are very beautiful in their hue. 

 When fishing in Guernsey in this manner we often take the 

 Sea-Perch (Serranus\ but it is not so frequent here as in the 

 Channel Islands and off the Cornish Coast ; it is not unlike the 

 Pope or Ruff in appearance, but runs up to 8 inches in length, 

 although commonly smaller. The flesh of the Sea-Perch is 

 eatable, but that of all the varieties of Wrasse is wretched in the 

 extreme, although much eaten in some parts of Devon and 

 Cornwall, and looked upon as a regularly marketable fish in the 

 Channel Islands, in which latter district it is customary to stew 

 them with onions. I have seen them 7 Ibs. or 8 Ibs. in weight, 

 but never took one above 6 Ibs. myself. They vary more in 

 size than any fish I have been in the habit of catching, and I 



