USK: MY EARLIEST MEMORIES 21 



some of the soft gravel, but instead of the water rising, it 

 merely turned to mud ; and the more I put in the muddier it 

 became, while there seemed to be even less water than before. 

 At last I became tired and gave it up, and concluded that the 

 story could not be true ; and I am afraid this rather made me 

 disbelieve in experiments out of story-books. 



The river in front of our house was the Usk, a fine stream 

 on which we often saw men fishing in coracles, the ancient 

 form of boat made of strong wicker-work, somewhat the shape 

 of the deeper half of a cockle-shell, and covered with bullock's 

 hide. Each coracle held one man, and it could be easily carried 

 to and from the river on the owner's back. In those days of 

 scanty population and abundant fish the river was not pre- 

 served, and a number of men got their living, or part of it, by 

 supplying the towns with salmon and trout in their season. It 

 is very interesting that this extremely ancient boat, which has 

 been in use from pre-Roman times, and perhaps even from the 

 Neolithic Age, should continue to be used on several of the 

 Welsh rivers down to the present day. There is probably no 

 other type of vessel now in existence which has remained un- 

 changed for so long a period. 



But the chief attraction of the river to us children was the 

 opportunity it afforded us for catching small fish, especially 

 lampreys. A short distance from our house, towards the lit- 

 tle village of Llanbadock, the rocky bank came close to the 

 road, and a stone quarry had been opened to obtain stone, both 

 for building and road-mending purposes. Here, occasionally, 

 the rock was blasted, and sometimes we had the fearful delight 

 of watching the explosion from a safe distance, and seeing a 

 cloud of the smaller stones shoot up into the air. At some 

 earlier period very large charges of powder must have been 

 used, hurling great slabs of rock across the road into the river, 

 where they lay, forming convenient piers and standing-places 

 on its margin. Some of these slabs were eight or ten feet long 

 and nearly as wide ; and it was these that formed our favourite 

 fishing-stations, where we sometimes found shoals of small 

 lampreys, which could be scooped up in basins or old sauce- 

 pans, and were then fried for our dinner or supper, to our 



