sir; she’s all ready.” I have an unfortunate habit of looking after little matters, and knowing that there is a hole, which ought to be stopped up by a cork in the bottom of every boat, I examined to see if the cork was in its place; of course it was not We soon got a cork and fastened it in tight, one of our party telling us that he once knew a young man who went out a little way to sea, and who, finding

that there was a little water in the bottom of the boat,

actually took the cork out of the hole to let the water out quite forgetting that the water would rush in; it did rush in to his great surprise, and the boat was pretty nearly full before he could get ashore again. We were soon out on to the marks Robinson Crusoe had indicated, and were wondering whether the old man would keep his appointment. At last we were delighted to' see him paddling away out of the harbour. He was soon alongside, his brave old face radiant with smiles, for he had taken a great fancy to me, though he

does not to everybody. u Are we on the marks, George?” u Not by a long ways, sir.” “ Then just put us right like a good fellow, will you? Better come into our boat; we will tow your old tub

astern.” “ Don’t you go to insult my old boat, sir, or I won’t show you the wrack.” “ Never mind, George, it’s only a joke.” u Let go the anchor, boy,” said George.

The boy picked it up and spat on it. “ What’s that for?” said I. “ That’s for luck,” said George, “ and to make the fish bite; but it don’t always, for a chap the other day spit on his anchor (and it was a bran new one, too); he heaved it overboard; but there was no cable bent on it

so he lost it right off, and was obliged to go home to fetch another. So he lost his anchor and his tide of

fish too. “ The pouts are terrible thick about here. They lays all round the wrack, and you must just lay over ’em and get the anchor fixed right, or else you yaws out cf ’em; but if you manages proper, you will yaw right in again, all amongst ’em. If you ain’t exact on the mark, you might just as well put your line overboard on Southsea Common. Pouts is very nice in their feeding. The soldiers* is best bait for ’em in clear water, the lug worm when the water is thick; but I holds with lug for all that. When you ain’t got no soldiers, nor yet you ain’t got no lug, a bream cut up is as good a bait as anything; a nice fresh bream cut is as good as a pint of lugs any day. Soldiers is terrible scarce about here, leastways them as wears shells and not red jackets, and soldiers in the sea shifts like soldiers on the land, you never find them long in the same place. The pouts generally runs pretty 6 rubbly,’ all of a size like, and they have got teeth in their mouths just like a Christian. I thinks they preys on one another. They’re like the New Zealanders; they are rum chaps, them fellows, for I have heard that when they have done with their wives they eats ’em. I’ve catched

Soldier crabs.

thousands and thousands of dozens of pouts, and I once eatched a hundred dozens in three tides, and then ] dropped it. That was the time that they was working in the wrack a-getting up the timbers, and the diver seen the pouts all round the bait. He said there was millions of ’em, but they would not swim away from his line. When he was down there among the wrack, he seed a great lobster, and he ups and knocks him down with the crowbar. The pouts won’t bite when the east wind is coming; the cattle knows it and so does the pouts. I can tell by the biting of ’em as there is an east wind coming, and they knows it is a-coming the day before it comes. This is a lucky wrack where we are ’ on it once. Ion now, sir; and I catched some 4 curioes was out one day, and the pouts would not bite. I could not even get a smell out of ’em; so I thought I would have a creep round with my anchor, just to pass the time, and the first haul I catched an oyster drudge (dredge), the second I got a boat’s anchor, and the third a bit of a boat’s copper-fastened bottom, and the fourth a great rope of the Ryde horse tow-boat, and the fifth I catched nothing at all. Altogether what I did creep! up fetched me four shillings.” u Tell me when pouts spawn, George.” “ Well, sir, that palls my capstan altogether. I have catched millions of dozen in my time and never seed one in spawn yet; and another curious thing is,

the male fish is more scarce than the females; perhaps it is that the gentlemen is more cleverer than the ladies, and that ain’t like our own species, is it, sir?” “ Do they ever catch anything beside pouts about here, George?” “ Yes, sir, sometimes they catches convicts a -floating about the harbour. A waterman was rowing along quiet enough one day when he seed a bushel basket floating along with the tide. He went up to it, and lifted it up to put it into his boat; he was terrible surprised to find a living man’s head underneath! A convict had escaped the guard, and had somehow managed to get into the water, concealing himself under the basket. He was floating away unnoticed and unobserved out of the harbour, when the waterman, unfortunately for the poor chap, took a fancy to the basket and discovered him.” “ Did they let him go, Eobinson Crusoe? ” said I. “ Why, sir,” was the answer, “ the waterman had a good heart to let him go, but he was a Government pensioner, and was obligated to give him up, besides which they gives a sovereign for catching a convict, though it ain’t often one finds them floating about the harbour under baskets. There ain’t no chance for the

poor fellows with the basket plan again, as everybody as sees a basket in the harbour goes out to see if there ain’t a convict under it. I’ve turned ever so many

crusoe’s stump. 1?

baskets over myself, but I ain’t found no convict as yet; I ain’t bad the luck.” “ And how’s your stump to-day, George?”' “ Oh! he’s pretty nigh worn out, sir. The Government would give me a new one if I axed ’em for it, but they ain’t got many wooden arms in store, though they’ve got plenty of wooden legs. I ain’t going to trouble ’em at my time of life; this old one will serve my time, and I can always get a new peg-top to put in

the leather part.” u Did the operation give you much pain; did you take chloroform!” “ No, sir, I never had no chloroform when I had my arm off; all I had was a chaw of ’bacca in my mouth; but I still feels my thumb, as was taken off with my hand, and the wart on him is still one of the best theometers* as I knows of. The doctor give me one of my fingers, and I brought him home and put him in a bottle of rum.” “ I suppose you have been out in bad weather, in your old boat, sometimes?” “ Yes, sir. I waits till the wind ’bates a bit, and then out I goes, wet or dry. I never shipped a sea in her but once, and that was three buckets of water. That was an awful night, sir, that was enough to blow a Quaker’s hat off. I was going away for Dangston

Thermometer. SER. hi. c

Harbour to get a tide of fish, and it came on to blow when I was just outside the harbour. The waves was

frightful to look at, just like hills rolling along. 1 see three great seas a coming one after the other frowning at me (and these big rolling seas always goes by threes all the world over), but these fellows was frightful. So I says to myself, I must put my wits to work and double you, my gentlemen, or else it’s all up with me; so I iowers my sail and looks out. The first sea broke just short of me, the second passed right under me before he broke, and before the third came I was in shoal water inside the harbour—and thank God for it! It was a lucky night for me, for as soon as

ever the tide slackened I catched a terrible sight of fish—ten pounds of the beautifullest dabs as ever you see, and seventeen cod. I catched ’em fine, for they did bite that night. That’s just the place where I once seed the biggest cod I ever did cast eyes on. I observed a spangle on the bottom, and then up he comes out of the grass. I puts my line overboard directly with a fine lug on the hook, and drops it right over his nose; so he swims up, opens his mouth, and sucks the lug into it, and there I watched him just a tasting ’em like with his tongue. When I thought it was time, I jerks on my line, and the hook comes out of his great gape as easy as a straw out of a glass; so I tries him again. He takes it into his mouth again, cants up and spits it right out in my face, and I never catched him

after all. That’s the way that gentleman served me; he knowed better than to get hooked.” “ When do you go out fishing most, George?” “ I don’t fish much of a day, sir; I fishes most of a night, and a’most every night, too, when it’s anyways like weather. 1 got no clock, nor yet watch; but I’ve got the stars, as will let me know the time to a quarter of an hour. There is one star in particular as serves me, and in a month’s time I noticed there was never a quarter of an hour’s difference in her time.” “ Do you ever go to sleep, George! ” “ No, sir, I don’t go to sleep; but I tell you what, sir, I thinks the fish sleep of nights—that’s my experience of ’em. I’ve been out thousands of nights, and I’ve always observed as one particular hour is different from any other hour of a night, and that’s between twelve and one. The fish never bites at that time, and after that hour is over they begins again, and keeps on till daylight; but before that hour they always fishes slack, and I can sleep between twelve and one if I likes, for it’s no use heaving the line overboard; but after the clock strikes one the fish won’t let me go to sleep, and I’ve always found it so. That’s what makes me think the fish sleep; if they don’t sleep they rises to the top of the water. When the water is thick, and it’s a moonlight night, that’s the time to catch ’em; if the water is thick, and it’s dark too, the fish can’t see

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