FISHES. 289 



dead and leaden hue ; the sea^ roughened by the rising 

 breeze, reflected its deeper hues with an intensity approach- 

 ing to black, and seemed a dark uneven pavement, that 

 absorbed every ray of the remaining light. A calm silvery 

 patch, some fifteen or twenty yards in extent, came moving 

 slowly through the black. It seemed merely a patch of 

 water coated with oil. But, obedient to some other moving 

 power than that of either tide or wind, it sailed aslant our 

 line of buoys, a stone-cast from our bows ; lengthened itself 

 along the line to thrice its former extent; paused as if 

 for a moment ; and then three of the buoys, after erecting 

 themselves on their narrower base with a sudden jerk, 

 slowly sank."*^ One — two — three buoys ! exclaimed one of 

 the fishermen, reckoning them as they disappeared ; there 

 are ten barrels for us secure. We commenced hauling; 

 the nets approached the gunwale. The first three appeared, 

 from the phosphoric light of the water, as if bursting into 

 flames of a pale green colour. Here and there a Herring 

 glittered bright in the meshes, or went darting away through 

 the pitchy darkness, visible only by its own light. The fourth 

 net was brighter than any of the others, and glittered 

 through the waves while it was yet several fathoms away ; 

 the pale green seemed mingled with broken sheets of snow, 



