MALTA AND SICILY. 
141 
The shells of the oysters (spondylus gcedo- 
ropus) are ornamented with beautiful pink 
spines, and the animals are of a reddish 
colour, but are inferior in flavour to those 
caught on the English coast. Clamping can 
only be performed when the water is smooth, 
as it is necessary to see the bottom dis¬ 
tinctly, in order to fix the instruments pro- 
properly to the stones, but when the surface 
is only slightly ruffled by a breeze, the 
method adopted by the eel-fisherman will 
render it as smooth as a mirror. The sur¬ 
prising effect produced by a few drops of 
oil is well known to the Maltese fishermen, 
and by this means we are enabled to see 
distinctly to the depth of twenty or thirty 
feet, for the water in these seas is almost as 
l 
transparent as air; much more transparent, 
indeed, than the atmosphere of London at 
certain seasons of the year. We find that 
