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marine life clogged the deck scuppers. Here and there a sea-horse
appeared.

Although the living cargo presented a most attractive picture,
Captain De Cruz seemed interested only in the four shrimp brought up
with the several hundred other non-edible specimens. He seemed
pleased with the shrimp alone, and nodded to the two Negroes who were
wrestling with the large shrimp net.

The Shrimp net is a funnel-shaped affair rigged with two boards
at the mouth to keep it open while trawling. These boards are as large as
ordinary house doors but are much heavier and more substantial. They
are so adjusted that the pressure of the water, caused by the movement
of the ship, allows the boards to swing, forming a wide entrance to the
net. Lead weights or sinkers are attached to the bottom of the forward
part of the net to keep it on the floor of the sea, while long stringers of
hemp, looking like the hair of a drowned man, are attached to the netting
as protection against the sharp rocks and coral on the sea bottom.

While trawling the mouth of the net is open, resembling an
inverted "U". It tapers to an open tip, or entrance, that is netted all the
way around. This tip is the cul-de-sac for unwary shrimp. To a medical
student is would resemble nothing so much as a huge vermiform
appendix equipped with a draw-string at the point. This