MALTA AND SICILY. 
183 
anchovies, oil, and Sicily cheese, which last 
is a very poor article indeed, and has scarcely 
any taste but saltness. 
On our return by the side of the harbour 
we met with a man employed in catching 
shrimps, with an apparatus consisting of a 
number of shallow sieves formed of line net¬ 
work stretched upon hoops. They were 
baited with small pieces of fish, and were 
sunk to the bottom by stones fastened round 
the edge, their situation being marked by 
pieces of cork at the end of the lines. 
When they had remained in the water a few 
minutes, they were taken out again by means 
of a long pole with a fork at the end of it, 
when two or three small shrimps, seldom 
more, were generally found in each net. 
Here also was another fisherman provided 
with a line more than a hundred yards in 
length, to which were attached a great num- 
