never did sound
like music to my ears.

My six hens and a cockerel were located in the watch-house, from whence
they had the run of a large piece of wild ground overhanging the cliff.
Eggs I had in abundance, and even to spare, and before I left the island
had over thirty fowls. Beside the fowls' eggs I could, in the spring,
gather the eggs of the wild fowl inhabiting the islands by the score.

Enough of animals and birds; let us open another chapter on another
topic.

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CHAPTER V.

CANOEING--FISH OF THE PLACE--THE ORMER AND LIMPET--A CURIOUS
FISHING ADVENTURE--QUEER CAPTURES FROM THE SEA--ROCK
FISH--CONSTRUCT A FISH-POND AND WATER-MILL.

When the warm days and calm seas of May came I turned my thoughts to the
sea, of which I am passionately fond, and of which one never seemed to
tire, as one does of tame river water. Unfortunately my only vessel was
a canoe about fourteen feet long by three feet beam, and for sea work,
such as one gets round the shores of these islands, quite unfitted; but
there it was, and I had simply Hobson's choice--that or none.

On a calm sea, with a tide running only one way, such as one gets on the
English coast, the canoe was all very well and fairly safe; but here,
through the Percee, as the channel is called between Herm and Jethou,
the tide at times runs with great speed, and meeting with the resistance
of the Ferriers and other huge rocks, whirls, and turns, and foams in
all directions, so that a frail craft like a canoe would be a death-trap
to anyone foolhardy enough to venture out in it. That being the case, I
could only follow my canoeing hobby when the sea was calm, but even then
did not venture far from land.

I had several narrow escapes from upsetting, and at last, whilst lying
sleeplessly in bed (where, by-the-bye, most of my thinking and scheming
is done), the idea of making alterations in my canoe came under my
consideration, and before I went to sleep that night I had made up my
mind to improve her stability in several ways. I would make her fore and
aft compartments air-tight, so that if she turned turtle she would act
as a life preserver, and moreover, why not add an outrigger, such as the
natives of the Pacific have to theirs, making them almost impossible to
upset?

The second day saw my plans an accomplished fact. I put in bulkheads
fore and aft, and pitched the