PEARL FISHING IN FRANCE. 95 



sand ; feel the shell with their feet, and imme- 

 diately stoop down and pick it up. Thousands 

 and thousands are taken in this way. Each 

 lady or gentleman has his own basket for the 

 fish ; these are sent home, opened, and the pearls 

 looked for. Sometimes you may open hundreds, 

 and not find a pearl ; then again you may come 

 on three or four. The whole thing is very 

 good fun. It was a pearl fishing pic-nic, then, 

 which my friend had determined to join, 

 he had got an invitation for both of us ; 

 so it was settled we should commence fishing 

 the river in the coracle, some seven miles above 

 where this said mussel fishing was to take place, 

 work down the river, and drop on them just 

 about feeding time. 



I knew as much about a coracle as a rhino- 

 ceros, neither had I much faith in the skill of 

 my companion, but as he assured me that if we 

 only sat still we should be perfectly safe, and as 

 I knew, moreover, that the river was not deep, 

 and we could only get a ducking, I consented to 

 trust myself to his steerage. On arriving at 

 the stipulated place we found our vessel already 

 launched, sitting on the water like a duck. 



