COMMON SEA BREAM. 239 



to rise to the surface and pursue their course, as if engaged 

 in some important business of migration. Their actions under 

 these circumstances have sometimes led the managers of Pilchard 

 seans into considerable mistakes, from the supposition that they 

 were a body of the latter fish; and the large abundance of 

 them thus collected may be judged of by the fact that on one 

 occasion, twenty thousand, and on another, as I have been 

 informed, sixty thousand were caught in a scan at one time. 



When thus assembled into what is termed a schull, the fish 

 of a given age or stage of growth are found to keep together 

 in one body, and instances have occurred where a schull of 

 Chads or Bream have been enclosed together in a scan, in near 

 assemblage with a schull of Pilchards, without intermingling 

 with them; under which circumstances in the proceeding of the 

 fishermen, termed tucking, which will be described when we 

 give the Natural History of the Pilchard, it has happened that 

 the boats have first been loaded with the last-named fishes; and 

 when they have returned on the following day to obtain the 

 supposed remainder of their prize, to their surprise and dis- 

 appointment, they have found nothing to satisfy their hopes but 

 to them a worthless cargo of Breams or Chads. 



A story is known of an adventure of this kind, in which it 

 would have been difficult to persuade the fishermen that some 

 infernal agency had not been at work to disappoint their 

 expectations, and rob them of their gain. A poor woman had 

 gone to the scan boat to beg the gift of a few out of a suc- 

 cessful capture of Pilchards; and usually such a request would 

 not be preferred in vain. But on the present occasion she met 

 a refusal, and after uttering some hasty and angry expressions, 

 among which was a wish for their future ill-success, she went 

 away disappointed. It happened that this poor old woman had 

 some indefinite suspicions attached to her, as if she possessed 

 an influence with the evil one, who would not be inattentive 

 to her imprecations. A return to the scan, for the purpose of 

 taking up the remainder of the capture, confirmed the worst 

 fears of the fishermen; for, instead of the expected Pilchards, 

 nothing offered itself but an equal loading of Chads; with the 

 accompaniment however of a drowned toad; which was imme- 

 diately pronounced to be an unquestionable proof of the witch's 

 proceedings. Nor did the result tend to lessen this impression. 



