CH. VIII.] SPEARING FLAT-FISH. 107 
fish to take a shot at. Great numbers may be 
caught in this way near the mouths of some of the 
Devonshire rivers, amongst which I may mention 
the Erme and Teign, as being extremely well 
adapted for the purpose, and affording abundance 
of Flat-fish. 
When a boy, at a private tutor’s not far from 
the former, I used with a spear which I kept 
hidden in some gorse near our bathing-place and 
took into the water with me—perhaps up to my 
breast or chin in it—to pick up a great many. I 
remember on one occasion striking and securing 
three at once. My plan for getting a good one off 
the spear, as its barbs were not in first-rate 
working order, was to insinuate my foot under the 
fish, and getting a toe on each side of the prong 
on which he was, to raise up foot and all until I 
could reach it with my hand, and take him off, 
when I pitched him on shore to wait until I came 
out. 
Hugh Miller, in that very entertaining book 
of his, My Schools and Schoolmasters, asserts that 
Flat-fish have the power of changing their colour 
at will, making it accord with that of the bottom 
on which they may happen to be lying. He, 
alas! poor fellow, is no longer among us to throw 
