Now we have made our offing, and can look well into Teignmouth Harbour,
the bluff point of the Ness some four miles distant, scarcely definable
now against the land. We pull down sails, set her head for the Orestone
Rock, and drift with the tide. The dredge is hove overboard, paying
out some forty fathoms of line, for we have about twelve or fourteen
fathoms’ water here, with a nice rough, rubbly bottom, over which, as
we hold the line in hand, we feel the iron lip of the dredge grate and
rumble, without catches or jumps. Now and then, for a brief space, it
goes smoothly, and the hand feels nothing; that is when a patch of sand
is crossed, or a bed of zostera, or close-growing sea-weeds, each a
good variation for yielding.
“What d’ye say, Tom? Shall we try it?”
“Ay, ay, sir!”
Up comes the wet line under Tom’s strong muscular pulling, and as
it leaves his hands, we coil it snug in the bows of the boat. Dimly
appears the dredge some yards below the surface, and now it comes
to light, and is fairly lifted aboard. “’Tis mortal heavy!” Well
it may be, for here is a pretty cargo of huge, rough stones, great
oyster-shells, and I know not what. Bright scarlets and crimsons and
yellows I discern, and many a twinkling movement among the chaos raises
our expectations of something good. We pick out the most conspicuous
things, and now turn the whole contents bodily on this old shutter,
which we have laid across two thwarts. ’Tis done; and now heave the
dredge over again, and we are free to work at the mass with all our
eyes and fingers.
The first thing that strikes attention from its size and brilliant
colours is a great Sun-star.[113] This is a noble example of the
Star-fish family, not uncommon off these shores. The disk of this
specimen is two inches and a half wide, and the rays, which are here
eleven in number (more commonly twelve) are one and three-fourths
long, so that the total diameter of this fine creature is six inches.
The upper surface is convex and cake-like, but can be plumped up at
pleasure. Both disk and rays are studded with small whitish knobs,
which seem simple to the eye, but when magnified are seen to be formed
of short and close-set spines. They are not regularly arranged on the
rays any more than on the disk. Slightly elevated ridges connect the
knobs, thus covering the whole surface with a raised network.
[Illustration: