S66 WHALING AND FISHING. 



A very light breeze prevailed, before which none 

 but the sharpest vessels could make headway. 

 These had hardly gotten clear of the lane/, when 

 they " struck " mackerel. They at once " hove 

 to," and did not again get under way until their 

 decks were filled the fish biting all this time as 

 fast as they could be hauled in. Meantime, the 

 slower moving portion of the fleet had just time 

 to reach the harbor's mouth when the little breeze 

 which had carried them thus far died away, and 

 it fell a dead calm ; and they were actually forced 

 to lie there, within four or five miles of a vast 

 school of fish, and in plain sight of their more 

 fortunate companions, without feeling a bite. 



" The fleet " is an aggregate of all the vessels 

 engaged in the mackerel fishery. Experience has 

 taught fishermen that the surest way to find mack- 

 erel is to cruise in one vast body, whose line of 

 search will then extend over an area of many miles. 

 When, as sometimes happens, a single vessel falls in 

 with a large "school," the catch is of course much 

 greater. But vessels cruising separately or in 

 small squads are much less likely to fall in with 

 fish than is the large fleet. "The fleet" is there- 

 fore the aim of every mackerel fisherman. The 

 best vessels generally maintain a position to thj 

 windward. Mackerel mostly work to windward 

 slowly, and those vessels farthest to windward in 

 the fleet are therefore most likely to fall in with 

 fish first ; while from their position they can quickly 

 run down, should mackerel be raised to leeward, 



