The English in the West Indies or the bow of Ulysses

Page 103

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THE

ENGLISH

IN

THE

WEST

INDIES

last,‘ No mullet, but plenty crayfish,’ pointing down into the water; and there, following the direction of his finger, webeheld strange grey creatures, like cuttle-fish moving about on the points of their toes, the size of small lobsters. The flies were dismounted, a bare hook was fitted on a fine gut trace, with a split shot or two to sink the line, all trim and excellent. A fresh-water shrimp was caught under a stone for a bait. G — went to work, and the strange things took hold and let themselves be lifted halfway to the surface. But then, somehow, they let go and disappeared. Our small boy said nothing ; but I saw a scornful smile upon his lips. He picked up a thin dry cane, found some twine in the luncheon basket which had tied up our sandwiches, found a pin there also, and bent it, and put a shrimp on it. With a pebble stone for a sinker he started in competition, and in a minute he had brought out upon the rock the strangest thing in the shape of a fish which I had ever seen in fresh water or salt. It was a true ‘ crayfish,’ écrevisse, eight inches long, formed regularly with the thick powerful tail, the sharp serrated snout, the long antennæ, and the spider-like legs of the lobster tribe. As in a crayfish, the claws were represented by the correctly shaped but diminutive substitutes. When we had done wondering at the prize, we could admire the smile of conscious superiority in the face of the captor. The fine tackle had been beaten, as usual, by the proverbial string and crooked pin, backed by knowledge in the head of a small nigger boy.


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