Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/153

Rh motion, as well as the increased weight, will tell if a fish be hooked.

The author of "Wild Sports of the West" has graphically depicted his own participation in such a fishing, on the wild and tempest-beaten coast of Connaught. "It was evident that the Bay was full of Mackerel. In every direction, and as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins were collected; and, to judge by their activity and clamour, there appeared ample employment for them among the fry beneath. We immediately bore away for the place where these birds were most numerously congregated; and the lines were scarcely overboard when we found ourselves in the centre of a shoal of Mackerel.

"The hooker [or boat] however, had too much way; we lowered the foresail, double-reefed the mainsail, and then went steadily to work. Directed by the movements of the birds, we followed the Mackerel, tacking or wearing the boat occasionally, when we found that we had overrun the shoal. For two hours we killed those beautiful fish, as fast as the baits could be renewed and the lines hauled in; and when we left off fishing, actually wearied with sport, we found that we had taken above five hundred, including a number of the coarser species, known on this coast by the name of Horse Mackerel.

"There is not on sea or river, always except angling for Salmon, any sport comparable to this delightful amusement; full of life and bustle, everything about it is animated and exhilarating; a brisk breeze, a fair sky, the boat in quick and constant motion, all is calculated to interest and