34 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



and a medium-sized hook, with a piece of lead as a 

 sinker, completed the outfit. Shrimps are soon put 

 on a hook. The only necessity was to cast as far as 

 possible, and let the bait sink. This was followed by 

 an instant nibbling. Not once was the same species of 

 fish landed twice in succession. I had just taken the 

 hook from the mouth of a small crimson and blue fish, 

 and was in the act of lifting into the boat one of the 

 very brightest pea-green colour from nose to tail, when 

 an exclamation from the boatman showed me that he 

 had hooked something unusual, which turned out a 

 31b. octopus, which we had great trouble in killing by 

 repeated stabs after it had explored every corner of the 

 boat a squirming mass of arms each 18 in. long. A 

 species of small white fish may be caught in great 

 numbers in the harbours, but are not much esteemed 

 as food. 



Young fish like whitebait, with immense quantities 

 of enormous sea- slugs, are frequently the only result of 

 careful hauls of the net. Pilchard, tunny, and an- 

 chovy, prawn, lobsters, red and grey mullet, turbot, 

 and other fish are taken in places round both islands. 



With regard to banditti or brigands no one need be 

 afraid of them in Corsica ; and the same might be said 

 with equal truth of its neighbour, Sardinia, where an 

 enforced sojourn in the mountains while an ear or some 

 other portion of anatomy is sent to one's friends as a 

 sample, with more to follow, is a thing unheard of at 

 the present time. 



