158 SNAPPING MACKEREL. 
as they swim or are drifted along unsuspiciously. He 
makes one dash, a dozen startled spearing leap into the 
air, and swim for dear life ; but the victim is generally 
carried off, a dainty and epicurean meal. 
Sp)earing invariably swim near the surface ; they haunt 
the gates of tide-mills when the tide is rising, and are 
drifted in with the current when the gates open before 
the advancing waters. The snappers take the opportu- 
nity, not merely to plunge among the shoals before the 
gates lift, but afterward, when the spearing, who are 
helpless in a strong current, are swept along, to pounce 
upon them. 
Of course in such places they can be captured with 
most success. When they first make their appearance, 
not longer than your forefinger, but tender and delicate 
beyond belief, they may be found at low water in the 
rivulets of white froth that run bubbling from holes and 
leaks in the mill-gates. The best mode of taking them 
at this time, for they are small and fastidious, is with a 
salmon-rod and a tiny spearing on a Limerick hook ; by 
making casts and drawing the bait along the surface of 
the water and through the frothy eddies, the young inno- 
cents are deceived, and thinking to prey upon their 
weaker brethren, become themselves a jDalatable viand 
for larger creatures. They break like trout, without 
throwing themselves out of water, but with a noisy snap, 
and if they miss the bait at first, will follow it resolutely. 
It is no mean sport to stand upon the old worm-eaten, 
weather-stained bridge, and wield the long rod, playing 
your allurement over the water to the music of the rush- 
ing current and the steady clack of the mill-wheel, and 
