MACKERELS. 139 



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 immedi- 

 ately 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. Di- 

 rected by the movements of the birds, we followed 

 the Mackerel, tacking or v/earing the boat occa- 

 sionally, 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 num- 

 ber 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 compai;able 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 



* Caraiix tracJtunis, L acep. 



