CH. VII.] LADY-BIRDS AT SEA. 99 
on the last occasion), besides some other fish. On 
the previous day we had caught exactly half the 
number, twelve dozen and ten. The fish bit most 
freely when the tide ran so hotly that we could 
scarcely “hold bottom,’ and they came whirling 
up against the current two at a time as if they 
were spinining-baits that we were using for larger 
fish. 
On that day I noticed vast numbers of Lady- 
birds drifting along by us with the tide to the 
eastward as we lay at anchor. Where they had 
come from, or where they were going to when they 
fell into the water, it is not very easy to conjec- 
ture. There was no wind where we were, and the 
actual surface of the sea was of an oily stillness: 
a long swell was, however, plainly discernible, prov- 
ing that at no great distance there had been a 
good deal of wind, which might have driven them 
off shore, or, what is more probable, caught them 
whilst in the act of changing their quarters en 
masse and beaten them down into the sea. 
The best dress that I know for boat-work in 
wet weather consists of a pair of macintosh over- 
halls made to tie round the waist, a light cape of 
the same material, about thirty inches long, and 
an oil-skin wide-awake. The overalls should be 
‘HW 2 
