A TORPEDO AT ONE END OF THE LINE, 149 
The better to understand the story I have to relate, 
it is proper to remark that in fishing with a ground- 
sean in the sea, the operatipn must be conducted late 
in the evening or at night ; as, indeed, to be eminently 
successful, must be every kind of fishing in the ocean ; 
and when, instead of drawing this sweep-net or sean 
to land, it is to be received into a boat, a purse, or 
what is technically termed a bunt, is formed in the 
body of it, within which the captive fish become col- 
lected, that they may be the more easily secured and 
taken on board. On the south coast of Cornwall ten 
men proceeded together on such an expedition, and 
were successful in getting a good quantity of fish into 
their net, and which, while the bunt of the net re- 
mained in the water, they prepared to take with their 
hands into the boat. But while thus engaged, the 
man employed in handling the fish was heard to utter 
what his comrade described as a most unearthly yell, 
“and then he fell backward to the bottom of the boat, so 
that his associates supposed that he had been at the 
least seized with sudden illness. Several minutes 
passed before he was able to utter a word, and conse- 
quently to relieve the anxiety of his friends, how it 
was he had been smitten ; but one of his companions,’ 
who manifested less sympathy with the terror under 
which he laboured than the rest, ascribed it to his 
being what he termed nervous; but as in answer to 
this the sufferer ascribed what he had felt to some- 
