Menhardoc Part 44

It was a good comparison, for there is great similarity between them.

The short tentacles and the two longer ones, with which the cuttle is provided, were duly examined, and then they, murderers as they were of all things that came to their net, were condemned to be eaten in turn.

"Which is only fair, is it, father?" said d.i.c.k laughing.

"Quite fair, d.i.c.k," he replied. "It seems to be the law of the sea; every fish eats those less than itself and gets eaten in its turn. The only thing with them is, that each one has some chance for its life, and lives as long as it can."

"I see once a very rum kind of a squid," said Josh, who, while the mackerel catching went on and no more curiosities were turned out, seemed disposed to be communicative. "Reg'lar great one he was, at low water out Lizard way."

"Octopus, perhaps," said Mr Temple.

"No, sir--sort o' squid-like, only very different. He was just like a dirty bag with eight arms hanging away from it, all covered like with suckers, and there was two great ugly eyes."

"It was an octopus from your description, my man," said Mr Temple.

"Was it now?" said Josh. "Well, I shouldn't wonder, for it was a horrid gashly thing, and when I saw it first it was sitting in a pool of clear water, with a rock hanging over it, looking at me with its big eyes, and filling itself full of water and blowing it out."

"How large was it?"

"'Bout as big as a bladder buoy, sir, with long arms all round twissening and twining about like snakes; and when I made up my mind that whether it come out and bit me or whether it didn't, I'd stir it up, and I poked at it with a stick, if it didn't shut itself up like and shoot through the water like an umbrella."

"Undoubtedly an octopus," said Mr Temple; "that is its habit."

"Is it now?" said Josh. "Well, I shouldn't have thought it. Seemed queer like for a thing with eight long legs to go zizzling through the water like a shut-up umbrella."

"Did you catch it?" said d.i.c.k.

"No, Master Ritchard, sir, I didn't ketch it, only poked at it like with a stick, for it didn't seem good to eat, and it wasn't the sort of thing you'd care to put in your pocket, even if you'd got one big enough, so I left it alone."

"I've heard that they grow very large in the neighbourhood of Jersey,"

said Mr Temple.

"Do they, though?" said Josh. "Well, they're gashly things, and I don't want to know any more of 'em. Squid and cuttle do very well for us 'bout here."

"Squid, as you call them, are found of immense size in the cold seas towards and in the Arctic circle, large enough, they say, to upset a boat."

"Then I'm glad this is not the Arctic circle," cried d.i.c.k. "Only fancy having one of those things picking you out of a boat! Ugh!"

He glanced at his brother and then laughed, for Arthur was looking rather white.

"What say?" roared Josh as loud as he could to a man in a boat close by.

"Gashly great fish in the net," shouted back the man.

"Gashly great fish in the net?" roared Josh.

"Ay; gashly great fish in the net. Mick Polynack see um while ago."

After a few inquiries it was found that the men believed that the great seine had been drawn round some large fish, possibly a shark, and the excitement was great when, after emptying the tuck net, it was gathered in and the great seine drawn closer.

This took a long time, but it was effected at last, the s.p.a.ce inclosed being reduced to less than half the former size, and once more the busy scene went on, the mackerel being caught by hundreds, counted into baskets, tied down, and sent off; but though its appearance was eagerly looked for, no sign was given of the presence of the big fish, whatever it might be. More ba.s.s were found, and scad, and gurnard, and a long, thin, cod-fish-looking fellow was drawn napping and splashing from the sea, proving to be a ling. Then there was quite a sight of a little shoal of gar-fish or long-nose, which played about the top of the water for some time here and there in a state of excitement; and then there was a splashing and flashing, and one after the other they threw themselves over the cork-line and escaped to the open bay.

"What a pity!" cried Arthur.

"Oh! not much, sir. We don't care a very great deal for 'em down here."

More squid, a cuttle or two, and several other fish of the varieties previously taken; and still, as if the supply was inexhaustible, the mackerel were ladled out as if from a huge basin with the great landing-nets.

"There don't seem to be any big fish here," said d.i.c.k at last in disappointed tones, for he had lost all interest in smaller fry since he had heard the announcement of there being something larger inclosed in the net.

"I should say it was a shark," said Josh quietly, "he lies so quiet at the bottom."

The word shark was electrical, and sent a thrill of excitement through the little party.

"But have you sharks off this coast, my man?" asked Mr Temple.

"Not a great few, sir; but we sees one now and then, and times we hear of one being ketched."

"You mean dog-fish," said Mr Temple.

"Oh no! I don't, sir," cried Josh. "Real sharks."

"But only small ones."

"Yes, sir, small ones, big as Will there, and big ones, great as me, and three foot longer. Shouldn't wonder if there was a big one in the net."

"But a large fish such as you speak of would go through the net as if it were a cobweb."

Will shook his head.

"If the net was tight, sir, and the shark swam right at it, the meshes would give way; but they don't seem to swim right at them, and the net goes with the fish like--yields to it--and does not break. It does sometimes, of course; but we've seen a big fish, a porpoise, regularly rolled up in a net and tied in so that it couldn't move."

"Like a conger in a trammel," a.s.sented Josh. "Fish is very stoopid, sir, and never thinks of getting out the way they go in."

All this while the seine was being contracted and drawn into the boat, where it was laid up like some gigantic brown skein, the men who were gathering it in shaking out the sea-weed and small fish that had enmeshed themselves and had forced their unfortunate heads in beyond the gills.

"Here she be," shouted one of the men, as there was a tremendous swirl in the water close by a boat.

"All right!" said the captain of the seine, "we'll have her bime-by;"

and once more the collecting of the mackerel went on till the tremendous shoal that had been inclosed had exchanged places, and was pretty well all in the baskets that were still being rapidly despatched. And all this time the net had been more and more contracted, the bottom worked by the ropes, so that it was drawn closer and closer, and at last it was decided that the next thing to be done was to capture the large fish, whatever it was, and this they set about, as shall be told.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

UNPLEASANT TIMES FOR A BIG BLUE SHARK.

Long usage had made the princ.i.p.al fishermen who lived by seine-fishing and trawling as thoroughly acquainted with the bottom of the bay as if they could see it like a piece of land. Every rock and its position was in their mind's eye, every patch of sand and bed of stone, so that they had no difficulty in getting the net in closer and closer towards one side of the bay, where it formed a broad sandy slope, up which it was determined to draw the net, gradually opening the ends, or rather one end, the other being packed deeply down in the seine-boat.