that prince of his tribe, the splendid great cob in his pure plumage of blue-black and white, came almost within Den's reach, flapping, and one might say barking, with his hoarse cackle, in his ferocious eagerness to pull the fish from the nets. If one dropped from the bird's bills after he had got it out, he never picked it up again, but made for another. This went on until the nets were fully hauled in. Then the host of gulls sank down on the water, full with fish to their very gullets.

"They's hevin' a sort o' nap arter blowin' their kites out," Winder would observe on such occasions. Nothing was done to prevent valuable fish from being taken in that fashion, partly because the birds' name was legion, and also because, as the fishermen on our part of the coast said, there was fish enough for them and the gulls too. This feeling does not extend to all lines of the coast. There are parts where the sordid fishers begrudge a paltry sprat to a poor gull; but folks were not so mean about Marshton. And yet, what with the gulls above and the dog-fish below, they suffered enough at times. The dog-fish made terrible havoc with the hauls, with the fish in the nets and the fish on the

long lines; they snapped and tore the nets as they were brought in over the boat-sides.

In some of the hard winter seasons things went badly with the fisher folk, though they bravely made the best of it. Fish they had, but little or no money; and those who advocate fish diet are men who have never been forced to live on it daily. The keen north-easters cut clean through them, as they said. Men, women, and children had a dull and weary look. They were ill with a disease that had no pain, but that sapped all the springs of energy and joy-the want of meat. In a place where nearly all

were poor there was the of doing so were small. but their vessels could there they lay at their frozen fish of all kinds. left in charge of the boys, whilst their owners went to see the farmers in the adjacent districts to persuade them to purchase their catches, and use it as manure for the fields. They were glad to sell them for a mere trifle.

wish to help, but the means Fish they had in abundance, not make for any market; anchors, laden with hardThey were many of them

Although the snowfalls were heavy at times, the roads were kept open for the mail-coaches. No local

boards existed, but snow-ploughs were at work in all directions-the farmers willingly sending their fine cart-horses and men to help to clear the road in their own parishes. So the waggons came and fetched the fish and placed it in the fields, on the frozen snow in heaps at set distances, ready for spreading out when the weather broke. The nearest field on which that fish - dressing was placed was more than two miles from the tide.

"The gulls and dun (hooded) crows are all on the fields after the fish," said one of Den's shore-shooter friends to the lad one morning. "That's just in your line. They're at your farm on the uplands. Will you go?"

Off they started, but they had only got over half the distance when the frozen surface was broken through, and the pair found themselves with only their heads above water. Den was as tall as his friend, or it would have gone worse with him. There was a marsh spring at that spot. Out they scrambled and on they pushed, with many a trip and a stumble. Once they got a regular cropper; the duck-gun flew out of the man's hand and went sliding along in front of him. No marshman ever

carries a loaded gun over ice or frozen snow when the surface is slippery as it was then. Before starting, the load had been fired off, the muzzle plugged with a wad of tow, and the lock carefully bound round with a handkerchief..

At last the great field of forty acres, for which they were bound, was safely reached. Like the rest of the fields in that locality, it was separated from the neighbouring ones by a deep ditch, deep enough to hide a man, and a thick hedge. Looking through the branches of the hedge close to the gate of the field, they saw the gulls and crows, both dun and carrion, gorging themselves with fish. Den had no wish to shoot, he was absorbed in watching them feed. Four cobs were walking and flapping from one heap to another, digging and cackling. The other gulls, the common, and the black-headed in its winter plumage, the red-legged gull of the marshes, covered the field, or rather were spread over it in small companies, all busy at the fish, apparently filled with the same idea that they had to eat as much fish as was possible in a given time. The great cobs did not confine themselves to that one field; they visited the others and came back

again, but not near the hedge-they flew only over the middle part of the field. The smaller gulls did not wander, nor did they take the same precaution as their larger relatives.

So it went on from day to day. The birds left the fields for the flats as each evening drew near; each morning they brought more birds with them, and, finding that they were not molested, the whole crowd of crows and gulls grew bolder and more impudent, until the farmer noticed how much smaller his fish-heaps were growing-some of them, in fact, having nearly vanished. "Poor things!" said he, "they must be most desprit hungry-there ain't no doubt on that pint; but I raly don't see as I can afford to give 'em three waggin-loads o' fish ;" and he summoned his head carter, who was a good shot, handed him the old "raker" from over the chimneypiece, gave him a flask of the best sporting powder and some duck-shot, and bade him "wake 'em up a bit." The old fellow not only waked 'em all up, but he sent a good number of them to sleep again faster than was their wont. He got into the dry deep ditch, with a pair of old worsted stockings drawn over his boots to prevent the sound of the