MACKAREL. 75 



without a bait, being placed two or three inches behind the 

 first; by which contrivance those that folloAv the bait will be 

 caught, when perhaps they may not have an intention of actually 

 seizing it. This last method is certainly more successful than 

 that usually employed by fishermen, with a single hook. 



But Mackarel will also sometimes remain at the bottom, 

 where they are fished for with a boat at anchor; and I am 

 informed that when thus situated, they may be drawn upward 

 by the excitement of bait prepared for the purpose. A 

 quantity of salted Pilchards that have become rancid, are 

 bruised to a pulp, and hung over the side of the boat in a 

 basket, the droppings of which, by the action of the sea, 

 offer an allurement they are not able to resist. 



It sometimes happens that the usual habit of the half-grown 

 fish, of retiring into deep water on the approach of winter, is 

 so far interrupted, that they remain on the western coast even 

 so late as December and January, when they fall an easy 

 prey to the fishermen. In the year 1844, in the month of 

 October, the boats of Mount's Bay succeeded in taking fourteen 

 hundred thousand, for which they obtained about four thousand 

 pounds. In 1848, also, there continued for two months in the 

 same district a large abundance of small Mackarel; and in 

 December, 1842, Avith January of the following year, many 

 thousands, of the length of eight or nine inches, were caught 

 among Pilchards. Besides a great number given to the poor, 

 many were sold at a penny a score and sixpence the flasket. 



There was a time when an extravagant price was paid for 

 an early arrival of Mackarel in London, but the conveniency 

 of carriage by rail has put an end to this, and reduced the 

 benefit to the adventurers to a juster level. The average 

 price of this fish through the season for seven years, as 

 communicated by a fisherman, has varied from six pounds to 

 nine pounds the thousand; and the numbers caught in a boat 

 of rather less than the general size, with drift-nets, from fifteen 

 to twenty-four thousand. But it will sometimes happen that, 

 more than the last-mentioned number will be caught in a 

 single night. 



It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of so strong 

 and rapid a fish, that it not unfrequently becomes the prey 

 to enemies which appear to be far inferior in these respects to 



