Crabs and lobsters I could trap at any time by putting down “pots” anywhere round the island; but after a few weeks I got quite tired of them for the table, but would occasionally put down a couple of “pots” to see what of a curious nature I could catch.  The crayfish, spider-crabs, and hermit crabs, gave me infinite amusement, as they are so different in their manners and customs to the ordinary crabs, and are very bellicose, going for each other tooth and nail, or rather legs and claws, in a most terrible manner.  The way these little crustaceans maimed each other put me in mind of the scene in Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth,” where the rival clans hew each others’ limbs off with double-handed swords, so that a truce has to be called for the purpose of clearing the battle-ground of human debris.  The crabs have the advantage over the human species, insomuch that they can reproduce a lost limb.

Finding I could catch a large quantity of fish of all kinds, especially rock fish, which, being new to me, I greatly admired, I set about constructing a fish pond near the house.

These rock fish are a curiosity in the way of fish.  They run from about six inches to two feet in length; weigh from a few ounces to a dozen pounds, and no two that I have ever caught are alike, either in colour or disposition of spots.  They are spotty and speckly all over.  Some have copper-coloured spots, some yellow, some brown, some green, some red, and some an assortment of colours, so that one never knows what colour is coming up next.  Persons who are fond, when playing cards, of betting upon the colour of the trump to be turned up—­black or red—­would find the pastime of “backing their colour” infinitely varied, if they tried to guess the colour of the fish which would next appear.

My first fish pond, ten feet by five feet, was a failure, as it was leaky; but not to be beaten I commenced another and much larger one, sixteen feet by ten feet.  I selected a site close above high water-mark, and commenced digging, and in fact worked a whole day at it, intending to line it with a mixture of sand and lime, of which I had several tubs for making mortar for repairing the brickwork of my homestead; but that very evening I discovered a natural fish pond, or rather a pool, that could be turned into one by a little outlay of labour.

A cleft between two large rocks, separating them by about six feet, allowed the sea at high tide to flow into a pool at the foot of an amphitheatre of rocks, which gave a basin of water, at high tide, about twenty feet across.  Here was a grand, natural fish pool, and I soon turned it into a comfortable home for my finny captures.