FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
191 
shut up; 'Four' chipped in, and I thought the whole 
ship's company would turn out to see what the racket 
was about ; but old 
Bonnar was the 
only man we found 
on deck when we 
climbed through the 
chains. The lads 
toddled away to their 
bunks, and old B.and 
I smoked and spun 
yarns, and the boat 
swung astern by her 
painter. 
Early next morn- 
ing we were ashore again to see the Governor's trammel 
net overhauled before breakfast There were only a few fish 
in, and they resembled mullet, and are very good to eat, in 
taste rather like cod, but softer, and not so white. Those 
we caught on this occasion were about one pound weight, but 
we afterwards saw great quantities caught in a net, averag- 
ing I should think, five or six pounds. These the fisherman 
told us could be caught in enormous quantities round the 
coast. He told us of a loch which is dry at low tide, where, 
if a net is set across the mouth, there are such heaps of 
these mullet left on the sand at low water that a schooner 
might twice fill her hold in the day with them. But only 
the one man makes an industry of the fishing. 
It would possibly make a profitable industry to take 
these fish and cure them and send them to the South 
