"Ah! our friend John-Dory--Jean Dore, as the French call him--gilded John," said Mr Temple. "A delicacy, but not a handsome fish. Look at the thumb and finger marks upon his side." "Oh! but those are not finger marks," cried Dick. "No," said his father, "but they are quite near enough in appearance to make people say that this is the fish Peter caught, and held between his finger and thumb while he opened its mouth." "Here y'are, sir!" shouted a fisherman. "Young gents like to see this?" Josh rowed the boat alongside and Dick held his net, while the fisherman laughingly turned into it from his own a great jelly-fish, as clear as crystal and glistening in the sun with iridescent colours of the loveliest hue. "Oh, what a beauty!" cried Dick. "Look, father, look!" "Yes; keep it in the water, you will see it to the best advantage there." Dick doused the jelly-fish down into the sun-lit waters, and then they could see its wonderful nature. In size it was as big as a skittle-ball or a flat Dutch cheese, though a better idea of its shape may be obtained by comparing it to a half-opened mushroom whose stalk had been removed, and where beautifully cut leafy transparencies took the place of the mushroom gills. No sooner was it in the water than it began to swim, by expanding, and contracting itself with such facility that, but for the meshes of the net, it would soon have taken its wondrous hanging fringes and delicate soap-bubble hues out of sight. "Better not touch it," said Will, as Dick was about to place his hand beneath the curious object. "Why not?" asked Arthur sharply. "Because they sting," replied Will. "Some sting more than others. Perhaps that does, sir." Arthur glanced at his father, who nodded his head. "Yes; I believe he is right," said Mr Temple. "It is a curious fact in natural history. We need not test it to see if it is correct." "Look, look!" cried Dick; "here's a pollack like I caught. Oh! do look at its bright colours, father; but what shall we do with the jelly-fish?" "Let it go. We cannot save it. In an hour or two there would be nothing left but some dirty film." The pollack was then examined, with all its glories of gold, bronze, and orange. Then there was a skipping, twining, silvery, long-nose that could hardly be kept in the net, a fish that looked remarkably like an eel, save for its regularly shaped mackerel tail, and long beak-like nose. Sea-bream were the next--ruddy looking, large-eyed fish, not much like their fellows of the fresh water, even what were called the black bream--dark, silvery fellows, similar in shape, bearing but a small resemblance to the fish the brothers had often caught in some river or stream in a far-off home county. Dick's eyes glistened with pleasure; and waking up more and more to the fact that the finding of fresh kinds of fish gave the boy intense delight, Will kept eagerly on the look-out. "Here, hi! Throw that over here, Michael Pollard," cried Will.