102 PROSE HAXIEUTICS. 



It is in autumn that such violent changes take place ; 

 the summer months are rarely defaced by squalls, and 

 pleasant is it, at that season, to anticipate the heat of the 

 day, throw back the oppressive mosquito curtain, and, 

 springing up, hasten to catch the first breath of morn- 

 ing, and the earliest indications of dawn at the open 

 sash. Impressively beautiful, indeed, is that mysterious 

 half-hour which, commencing in darkness and silence, 

 ends in the awakened energies of a new m.omuig. As 

 the light breaks over the Bay, it seems like an epitome 

 of the glories of the first day of creation, when the Spirit 

 of God moved upon the face of the waters. As yet the 

 firmament is unconscious of the sun, and the high peak 

 of St. Angelo, where he is to appear, presents no rosier 



the month, on a day pre-arranged by the collective crews, the 

 bay, at an early hour in the morning, ia arched across by a con- 

 tinuous line of fishing-boats, the whole under the conduct and 

 management of a veteran Grripeus, who maintains order, and is 

 referee in matters of dispute. The expedition is admirably 

 organized ; to anticipate the advance of the hne towards shore 

 would subject the invader to the ' accidentes' and other voluble 

 maledictions of the combined flotilla, to say nothing of legal pro- 

 ceedings, and incarceration at St. Ehno. There is but small 

 temptation to transgress, for on the fiist day's dredging every 

 man gets as much fruit from the bottom as he can well manage ; 

 and when the whole bay has been once fished, httle remains to be 

 gleaned, and the whereabouts of that httle is a matter of uncer- 

 tainty. So cleverly do they clear the bed of its produce, that by 

 the end of October, when the first dredging terminates, the 

 fisherman's gains have sunk from twenty oarbni to one. After 

 this, he will often thrust the brandished pole into the sand, and 

 bring up nothing but mud and disappointment ; a few grains a 

 day is aU his fixed allowance, and on this, and on what he can 

 pick out of the sand, he has to find maccaroni for himself and 

 family ; tOl, by general consent, the sheh-fishery is abandoned 

 for that on the high seas, of which the produce now becomes 

 much more remunerative. Of the different sorts of ' coquiUage' 

 which are included in this ' sea-fruit,' we intend to speak at length 

 on a ftiture occasion. 



