166 GLAUCUS; OR, 



cheap, and precludes entirely the need of a commis- 

 sariat), this cardinal virtue of cheapness ought to 

 make Squinado an interesting object in the eyes of 

 the present generation ; especially as he was at that 

 moment a true sanatory martyr, having, like many 

 of his human fellow-workers, got into a fearful 

 scrape by meddling with those existing interests, 

 and "vested rights which are but vested wrongs," 

 which have proved fatal already to more than one 

 Board of Health. For last night, as he was sitting 

 quietly under a stone in four fathoms water, he 

 became aware (whether by sight, smell, or that 

 mysterious sixth sense, to us unknown, which seems 

 to reside in his delicate feelers) of a palpable 

 nuisance somewhere in the neighbourhood ; and, like 

 a trusty servant of the public, turned out of his bed 

 instantly, and went in search ; till he discovered, 

 hanging among what he judged to be the stems of 

 oar-weed (Laminaria), three or four large pieces of 

 stale thornback, of most evil savour, and highly pre- 

 judicial to the purity of the sea, and the health of 

 the neighbouring herrings. Happy Squinado I He 



