DREDGING. 89 



and tills not to eat the worms, not to sell them, but to put them 

 in vases, and finally cut them open, that was inexplicable. 



As we sailed through the sparkling waters, wafted by a 

 pleasant breeze, we talked to the men, and tried to make 

 them understand the kind of things which they might 

 always bring us, and be certain of j)urchasers ; but although 

 willing to oblige, and not at all indisposed to accept silver 

 for a little trouble, although one of the men had once picked 

 up a bunch of sea-grapes (eggs of the cuttlefish), for which 

 a gentleman gave him half-a-crown (a mad gentleman, 

 clearly), these stolid fellows always fell back upon their 

 ignorance. " Ah ! if Ave only knowed the things." In fact, 

 no bribe will move them. They cannot realise to them- 

 selves the conception that what they have for years thrown 

 away as rubbish, can possibly contain anything worth 

 money. I repeatedly urged on them these simple instruc- 

 tions : Bring me anything alive (except fish) that you find 

 in the net, and the chances are that I shall buy it. One 

 Calamary [Loligo) was all that came. 



We have reached the oyster-beds, and the Dredge is 

 dropped into the water, plunging some fifteen or twenty 

 fathoms, like a diver knowing what is required of him. On 

 we sail, the line running out, the dredge raking the oyster- 

 beds, and considerably retarding our progress in spite of a 

 stiff breeze. At length it is time to haul in, and the men 

 pull strenuously, till the Dredge appears, and a portentous 

 mass of oyster-shells, dirt, stones, and Sea-Urchins is 

 emptied in the bottom of the boat. We pounce on it, while 



the Dredge is once more cast into the water. 



H 



