LAMM-FISHING. 199 



iind of bag-net, the frame of wliicli is in the form of 

 a how of four feet diameter, the place of the chord 

 being occupied by a stout piece of wood, from the 

 centre of which passes a staff eight feet long, crossing 

 the bow, to whose middle it is fastened. The net is a 

 bag fixed to the bow and chord. It is used in this 

 manner. The fisherman dipping it beneath the hang- 

 ing weeds, raises it to the surface, shaking it, and as 

 it were raking the weeds with its chord ; his comrade 

 slowly pushing the boat meanwhile along the quay. 

 After two or three dips he examines his success, picks 

 out the prawns and shrimps, and deposits them in a 

 bag at his waist, and throws out contemptuously all 

 " rubbish." 



It is this " rubbish," however, which to any one 

 but the prawn-catcher constitutes the main game. 

 Many interesting little creatures have I got in this 

 way. Among the fishes this Pogge has occurred two 

 or three times ; chiefly small specimens not more than 

 two inches, or three, in length, but one among them 

 had attained the length of five inches, nearly the full 

 dimensions of the species. The small ones were black, 

 but the larger a dull dirty grey. The most marked 

 peculiarity of this little fish is its armature ; it is 

 blothed, like a knight of the age of chivalry, in a suit 

 of plate-mail, cap-a-pie. Every one of the bony-plates 

 of which its lorica is composed is furnished with an 

 elevated central keel ; and as the plates run in regular 

 longitudinal series, the surface of the body is armed 

 with eight elevated sharp ridges running from head to 

 tail. The huge head bristles with spines and bony 

 points, and the nose terminates in a couple of spines 



