Part 2

The owners of yachts, and families residing near the sea, will find a few crab-pots, which can be made at a very trifling cost, a valuable acquisition, as not only crabs, but lobsters, cray-fish, and prawns are readily taken in them. Sea fishing-tackle will be found very useful, as after having baited and laid down the _pots_ a number of fish may be very often caught. These will be found acceptable as an addition to the daily bill of fare, and such as are of inferior quality make excellent crab-bait. It is not our intention to enter at any length on a description of sea-fishing gear; still there are certain hints and expedients relating to it which may not prove unacceptable to the reader. Lines vary much in substance and length with the description of fish it is intended to capture, cod, conger eels, hake, &c., requiring them of considerable strength and power; but it will be found, as a rule, that the lines used by the regular fishermen of our coasts are much stouter than is necessary, and it may be depended on that the finer the tackle is, consistent with the requisite strength to hold the fish when hooked, the more successful will be the result of its use. It is very seldom indeed that a _line_ is broken by a fish, unless from some flaw or imperfection, the trace on which the hook is tied being far more frequently the point of breakage. Strong silk-worm gut, either single or twisted, is much to be preferred to the hemp snoodings in common use for all traces but those used in the taking of the very largest descriptions of sea-fish. The _round plait_ prepared salmon line, sold by all fishing-tackle makers, answers admirably for a general sea-line. The length may be proportioned to the depth of the water it is intended to fish, but about thirty yards is a convenient quantity to deal with. This should, for hand-line fishing, be kept wound on a _frame reel_. One of these is easily made as follows:--Two flat pieces of tough strong wood, such as oak or ash, about a foot long, an inch and a half wide, and a quarter of an inch thick, are to be prepared; at each end of these, at about two inches from the extremity, a round hole is to be either bored, or burnt with a hot iron. Two round wooden bars of about ten inches in length, and the size of an ordinary walking-stick, are now to be prepared, cutting each end to fit the holes in the flat bars, so that they may pass through them, and extend about two inches beyond. A shoulder must be cut in each joint, in order to prevent the bars from coming together; when put in place they are secured with small pins or brads; but, before fixing them, a round flat piece of cork is to be run on each round bar to stick the points of the hooks in; the cut on p. 15 shows the shape of the framework and the reel complete. Reels of this description are much to be preferred to the common kind, on account of the free ventilation they afford the lines when wound on them, and the freedom from entanglements insured by the cork hook-holders. The traces before referred to may be used of either single, double, or triple strands. All gut before being knotted together should be steeped for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in _warm_, not hot, water; the curled portions and ends are to be cut off, and the required number of lengths selected as to stoutness. They can now be attached to each other by the use of the gut knot, as shown in the preceding cut. This, when drawn home and the ends trimmed off, forms a very secure fastening. To make a double or triple gut trace it will be necessary to twist the strands constituting it. This can be readily done by knotting the extreme ends together and then placing them between the back spring and blade of a common pocket-knife, as shown in the annexed cut. The other ends are now taken by two or three persons, according to the number of strands to be twisted, held between the finger and thumb, and turned until a spinning motion is communicated to the knife hanging in the middle, when the trace is very quickly finished,--six feet is a good length for general purposes. All hook-lengths and traces should be attached to the main line by brass swivels. A short, stiff rod, with stand-up rings, fitted with a large-sized Nottingham reel, on which fifty or sixty yards of prepared line has been wound, will be found useful for taking many kinds of fish, and an extra joint or two adapts it for fishing from rocks or pier heads. When using tackle of this description from a boat for the capture of _small fish_, as pouting, chads, whiting, &c. are commonly called, it will be found a good plan to employ a foot trace of twisted gut, medium-sized trout-hooks tied on strong single gut snoods; these may be looped on at eighteen inches apart. The bottom of the trace must be secured to one of the conical sinkers of sufficient weight to keep the line straight down against the run of the tide. Bait with _rag-worm_, and commence fishing at about three feet from the bottom, when, if the fish are not found feeding there, shallow depths may be tried, or the ground itself just touched with the lead, only taking care that a sufficient strain exists just to slightly curve the top of the rod; on feeling a bite, strike sharply, and when the fish is found to be hooked, draw the line in with the right hand, whilst the rod is upraised in the left, until the prize is at the surface, when, unless very diminutive indeed, the landing-net should be made use of,--more fish are lost in weighing out than in any other way. Large captives must be played until sufficiently passive to be safely brought alongside and netted or gaffed.

Rod-fishing for mackerel bass, grey mullet, “_Atherene_” or sand smelt, and several other descriptions, may, at times, be practised with considerable success. We have taken great numbers of the two former with both bait and artificial fly. Mackerel fishing with the float-line affords, at certain seasons, excellent sport. A large cork float, four-foot trace of single salmon gut, and one medium-sized Limerick trout-hook should be used; three or four duck-shot will be found, with the swivel, sufficient to keep the trace straight. Bait with either pilchard gut, a strip cut from the tail of a freshly-caught mackerel, or a long narrow ribbon of cuttle; cap the float to about fourteen feet from the hook and let the bait drift off with the tide. We have repeatedly taken numbers of mackerel in this way when hand-lines of the usual pattern were not visited by a single fish. For grey mullet, live shrimps or pieces of rag-worm will be found the best baits. Smelts are taken by mounting a number of very small hooks, No. 12 Kirby bend, on short pieces of very stiff gut looped on to the main traces, at about six inches apart; a light sinker should be made use of, and short junks of rag-worm used as bait. Smelts much frequent localities where fresh water flows into the sea. Lead sinkers, of any weight between seven or eight pounds and that of a buck-shot, can be cast between two common Bath scouring bricks. Half the form of the intended sinker is cut on each brick (after the surfaces have been rendered smooth by rubbing them together) with a common knife or chisel. The two halves, when exactly matched, are tied together with tape and a small inlet hole made, through which the molten lead is poured from an iron ladle, tobacco-pipe, or iron spoon; according to the quantity of metal required: one brick is sufficient to cast simple forms in, merely cutting out the shape and filling it up. All sorts of articles in lead can be made in this way, without any of the dangers which usually attend casting in clay or damp mould. The two kinds of fishing leads represented in the above cut can be used for a great number of purposes, and are mounted either single or double, as the strength of the under current or run of the tide may render necessary, by passing a few turns of fine packthread or spare snooding through the holes at B, and bringing the flat surfaces of the leads in contact. A great number of bass, codlings and other fish are, in many localities, to be taken by laying out lines baited with whelk, hermit-crab, &c., to meet the coming tide as it flows in over beaches or sand flats. A heavy lead is often used as a means by which the line and baits are not only kept at the bottom when they reach it, but is turned after the manner of a sling round the head of the fisherman, and then cast far out in the surf, to be withdrawn and again thrown as the take of fish or renewal of bait may render necessary. There are many very great inconveniences attendant on this mode of fishing, and it is far better to lay down a _traveller_ when the tide is out. This is done as follows:--Just before the turn of the tide and the coming in of the young flood, select the spot at which you intend trying your fortunes, and then search out a large heavy stone as your _traveller block_, and thus prepare it, with strong twine or whipcord; take two or three turns round the stone and securely fasten off with a knot; then attach a common curtain ring or the link of an old chain. Lay your _block_ on the edge of the water, pass one end of your fishing-line through the ring, and walk back with it some distance up the beach, allowing the other end to be given off the reel until the spot at which the first end was dropped is reached. The line will now be doubled; one half has hooks on short traces, as many as it is thought expedient to use, mounted on it. The other half is free from hooks, in order that it may run through the ring without entanglement. A small piece of stick is knotted on the line close to the first hook, so that it cannot be pulled through the ring, as shown in the illustration on p. 21.

The arrangement is now complete and ready for baiting. It will be seen that as one line is drawn in, the other travels out towards the block, so that as the fish are hooked they are brought to land, the hooks are fresh baited, and the contrivance hauled out again without the trouble of throwing the lead. As the tide comes the fisherman walks back until he reaches high-water mark.

On some of our coasts a great number of Crabs are taken with the _crab-hook_. This is a sharp strong hook of tough iron, fastened to the end of a stout wooden staff, or pole, and the best time to use it is when the sea recedes during spring tides, and makes what among fishermen, is called a “_great out_.” At such times a great number of deep rock pools and hollow ledges become accessible, which during ordinary tides are far beneath the waves, and now is the harvest of the adventurous crab-hunter, who, hook in hand, climbs and scrambles among the slippery stones and weed-covered crags, to where narrow cleft and dark recess give promise of Crab’s lurking-places, when with a cautious probing motion, the curved instrument is thrust onward along the hidden galleries beneath the rock, until the practised hand detects the hoped-for impediment, when with one sudden, dexterous, backward stroke of his weapon he withdraws the retiring Cancer from his snug retreat, and exposes him to the garish light of day. Give him but one instant for reflection, and up goes his back against the roof of his hole, when, except by literally pulling him in pieces, extraction is a sheer impossibility; and it is in consequence of this exceedingly unaccommodating habit of his, that would-be crab-catchers have been at times crab caught, and their incautious groping hands held fast as though in the vice of some sea Vulcan, until the flowing tide has put an end to both their struggles and sufferings. The tenacity of a crab’s grip is perfectly extraordinary and all but incredible. A hold once taken is seldom let go, and the battles which frequently take place among these pugnacious gentry give ample scope for the exercise of their tremendous nippers; and nature has most wisely provided them with the power of throwing off such limbs as may be either seized by the enemy or seriously injured; and should they chance to encounter an antagonist from whom it appears wise to beat a retreat, our friend firmly seizes him by the most tender spot he can select, sets his pincers nipping and grinding in the most excruciating manner, and then rapidly detaching and leaving them in possession, darts off to the first sanctuary within his reach. To most living creatures the unceremonious sacrifice of limbs in this way would lead to almost immediate loss of life from hemorrhage, but a wise provision is also made for this contingency. The division taking place at a constricted portion of the joint of a limb admits of the vessels drawing themselves in, and so stopping the flow of blood. A thin membrane soon covers the stump, and in due time another limb replaces that which has been lost or cast away. In some localities the haunts of the Crab are discovered by fastening pieces of waste fish to the ends of short, strong lines, and then, after attaching long stones by their middles to the other ends, strewing them about among the rocks and pools; at the ebbing of the tide, these tell-tale stones are sought for as they rest outside and across the dwelling-places of the Crabs, which when found are not only “made a note of,” but the tenants either by hook or crook brought to light with little ceremony.

Some little judgment is required to select a thoroughly good Crab for the table, and as the choice usually lays amongst dead specimens, a few hints on the subject will not perhaps prove unacceptable. A male Crab is generally to be preferred to a female, on account of the larger development of claw, &c. The sexes may readily be distinguished by examining the flat, peak-shaped, flap-like tail, which will be found curled beneath the under-surfaces of the body. This in the male is narrow, whilst in the female it is wide and of different form. A good Crab should feel heavy in the hand, and on being sharply shaken no sound or movement of fluid heard. The large nippers should at the same time remain tucked tightly up, and not hang loosely from the body. The absence of freshness is a defect too obvious and important to need comment.

The proper mode of boiling Crabs has long been a subject on which _doctors have disagreed_. Who then shall decide? That there is cruelty associated with the taking away of life, it would be hard to deny, but the correctness of choice between gradual stewing in slowly-heating water, and being plunged at once into the seething, bubbling cauldron, requires “_the revelations of a boiled crab_” to clear up; and until a crustacean production under that or a like title appears, we shall continue to plunge our armour-clad victims in water at 212 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and leave the question as to the propriety of our so doing to those who are disposed to grapple with the subject for its own sake.

The change of colour which takes place in many of the crustacea during the process of boiling, has long been a subject of remark. The common and edible Crabs of this country have their tints far less affected than the lobster, the peculiarly rich blue shade of whose shell when in a living state is too well known to need any lengthened description; this, as is well known, changes to a bright red in the cooking-pot, and the uniform of the _police_ is exchanged for that of the _line regiments_. This strange metamorphosis, researches have shown to be entirely dependent on chemical laws. The pigment on which the blue shading and tint depend, is a peculiar fat-like substance, which possesses the singular property of becoming scarlet when subjected to 70 degrees of heat shown in the _centigrade_ thermometer. A colouring matter of very similar properties was some time since discovered in the beaks and legs of certain birds.

The lobster pigment is soluble in spirits of wine, by which agent it can be extracted from the shell; but the colour changes at once from blue to red. And on adding either nitric or sulphuric acid, the charged spirit is changed to a green of a remarkably _fast_ or permanent character. Who shall say, as fresh discoveries are made and new solvents brought to light, that lobster shells may not become more valuable than the appetising fish they once contained! We see no reason why the dormant sprite, who lies hid in the coat of sea mail, should not be roused from his long sleep and set to work with the other kobolds who do the will of the mighty magician _chemistry_; and little dreams the fascinating belle, who has been made “_beautiful for ever_,” how much those same kobolds have had to do with the process. _Bismuth_, from the deep-mine cavern, gives to the skin the pearly white so much prized: the cochineal bug, from the prickly cactus thickets, the roseate hue (“_The Turkish Bloom of Health_”) which is said, in the flowery language of the advertisers, to impart to the cheek the attractive lustre of the ripe peach. The elegant _mauve_ dress, ribbons, and gloves, are “tinctured” by a toiling imp residing in _gas tar_. “_Lovely things_” in green too are industriously turned out by two quaint, but rather dangerous and mischievously disposed gentlemen of the elfish crew, Messrs. Arsenic and Copper, who work in partnership, and whose attractive joint productions some time since poisoned a number of the sea-green nymphs of a Parisian ballet. How far more appropriate and safe would it have been to draw from the rich stores of king Neptune the materials with which to dye the drapery of the stage mermaid and seaside beauty, and we hope ere long to see “_the new lobster-shell green_,” under some tremendously sonorous Greek name (without which success would be doubtful), “_the fashionable colour_.”

The juvenile members of most of our seaside communities are much given to crab-fishing, and may be seen from early morn to evening late, dangling their legs over some convenient rock, sea-wall, or landing-steps, and with a piece of twine to which a dainty morsel of fish offal has been tied, doing their best to induce some greedy young crabling to grasp it with his nippers, when, with a sudden jerk and triumphant shout, the deluded victim is pitched out high and dry before he knows what he is about, and is then tied by the leg and led about like a lilliputian pig, who strongly objects to either going to market or staying at home. Fortunately for him he is not very good to eat, or as a rule very large; still his captors, when they do secure him of even ordinary dimensions, treat him to a pot of boiling water, and let him go cheap. This description of crustacean is known as the Harbour or Shore Crab (_Carcinus maenas_), and is represented in the preceding cut. He is a weed of almost every soil, and a perfect pest to those who fish in estuaries and tidal rivers, nibbling off the bait in a manner past all endurance, and when the watchful angler, anticipating the presence of a plump and silvery fish at the end of the line, raises his fishing-rod aloft, there hangs instead, a green, mud-coloured little imp, clawing the air like an enraged spider, making himself in fact in every way obnoxious and disagreeable.

Then there are other members of the same amiable race, with whom he who fishes the sea with nets will not be long before he makes acquaintance. These are the _swimming Crabs_, of which there are numerous species. These differ materially from the kinds we have described, in habits, appearance, and structure. By the use of their powerful oar-like legs they are enabled to propel themselves through the water with great rapidity and precision, and by darting among the meshes of the fishing-nets they become so hopelessly entangled, that a “_Fiddler Crab_” (as it is sometimes called from the rapidity with which it works its elbows) in a _trammel net_, is often used by fishermen as a standard with which to compare cases of the most utter bewilderment. The annexed cut represents one of these, the Velvet Swimming Crab (_Portunus puber_).

The still, deep, lagunes, within the coral reefs, in the southern and eastern seas, contain creatures of this class most exquisite in form and colour, and we have often looked down into some clear, well-like gulf between the branching coralines, clustering sponges, and actinea of countless hues, and watched the marvellous episodes of deep-sea life there passing beneath; fringes of crystal arms, disc-like mouths, and far-stretching tendril-shaped legs, wave from every point and ledge, whilst crustaceans, as of animated enamel work, accompanied by fish, like living gems, troop restlessly in and out and to and fro, in an endless throng.

_Anthozoa_, those living, ocean blossoms, spread their petals of a thousand hues, whilst the family of _Medusidæ_ float like shadows through the tranquil depths.

“Now it is pleasant in the summer eve, When a broad shore retiring waters leave, Awhile to wait upon the firm fair sand, When all is calm at sea, all still at land; And there the ocean’s produce to explore. As floating by, or rolling on the shore Those living jellies which the flesh inflame, Fierce as a nettle, and from that their name: Some in huge masses, some that you may bring In the small compass of a lady’s ring: Figured by Hand Divine--there’s not a gem Wrought by man’s art to be compared to them; Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, And make the moonbeams brighter where they flow. Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race, Which science doubting, knows not where to place. On shell or stone is dropped the embryo seed, And quickly vegetates a vital breed; While thus with pleasing wonder you inspect Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject. See as they float along th’ entangled weeds, Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads. Wait till they land, and you shall then behold The fiery sparks those tangled fronds infold Myriads of living points; the unaided eye Can but the fire and not the form descry. And now your view upon the ocean turn, And there the splendour of the waves discern: Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar, And you shall flames within the deep explore; Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand, And the cold flames shall flash along your hand. When lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze.”

CRABBE.

Spider Crabs are there, too, both here and in the seas, washing our own island, with limbs so long and attenuated, and bodies so small, that they look more like overgrown DADDY LONGLEGS going through a course of sea-bathing than aught else, and we almost begin to think they must be marine spiders after all, and wonder where the sea-flies are, and what sort of webs they would spin to catch them in. The Indian seas have inhabitants of the serpent order, which are by no means safe to meddle with. They, too, desport after their own manner:--

“Beyond the shadow of the ship I watched the water snakes; They moved in tracks of shining white, And when they reared, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes.

“Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire, Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire.”

“_Ancient Mariner._”

The subject of the annexed illustration is the common slender Spider Crab (_Stenorynchus tenuirostris_), frequently captured on our own coast. Some of these queer gentry, near relatives of his, are as prickly as a chestnut husk, and have claws like crooked tobacco-pipe stems. No cook even in the last stage of insanity could hope to utilize them.