188 CLUPEID.E. 



the beach we skirted, appeared unusually shrill. Other 

 noises gradually broke the stillness of the night. The varied 

 hum of numerous voices chanting the melancholy songs which 

 are the especial favourites of the Irish, began to be heard dis- 

 tinctly, and we soon bore down upon the midnight fishers, 

 directed by sound, not sight. 



" To approach the fleet was a task of some difficulty. 

 The nets, extended in interminable lines, were so frequent, 

 that much skill was necessary to penetrate this hempen laby- 

 rinth, without fouling the back ropes. Warning cries di- 

 rected our course, and with some delay we threaded the 

 crowded surface, and guided by buoys found ourselves in the 

 very centre of the flotilla. 



" It was an interesting scene. Momently the boats glided 

 along the back ropes, which were supported at short intervals by 

 corks, and at a greater by inflated dog-skins, and, raising the 

 curtain of net-work which these suspended, the Herrings 

 were removed from the meshes, and deposited in the boats. 

 Some of the nets were particularly fortunate, obliging their 

 proprietors to frequently relieve them of the fish ; while 

 others, though apparently stretched within a few yards, and 

 consequently in the immediate run of the Herrings, were 

 favoured but with a few stragglers ; and the unemployed 

 fisherman had to occupy himself with a sorrowful ditty, or in 

 moody silence watched the dark sea like some dull ghost 

 waiting on Styx for waftage. 



" Our visit appeared highly satisfactory ; every boat tossed 

 us Herrings on board, until we were obliged to refuse fur- 

 ther largess ; and these many ' trifles of fish ' accumulated so 

 rapidly, that we eventually declined receiving other compli- 

 ments, or we might have loaded the gig gunnel-deep. 



" The darkness of the night increased the scaly brilliancy 

 which the phosphoric properties of these beautiful fish pro- 

 duce. The bottom of the boat, now covered with Herrings, 



