The Mackerel Guide 26 1 



taken with the hook always command a higher price 

 than those caught in nets, for some curious reason 

 which I do not pretend to understand. 



So magnificently beautiful is the appearance 

 of a school of Mackerel on a calm day when they rise 

 to the surface in brilliant sunshine, that even the 

 most hardened fisherman is moved by it, and if the 

 unshaded eye should catch the reflected radiance of 

 the congregated millions as they turn, it will feel a 

 spasm of pain — the sight is too vivid for comfortable 

 vision. Over those closely packed masses range, in 

 screaming fussiness, flocks of sea-birds, busily looking 

 for smaller fish fleeing before the Mackerel, for it 

 must be but a very small individual that can be 

 effectually dealt with by a gull or even a cormorant. 



Swimming sedately in front of the school may often 

 be seen a quaintly shaped fish, called by the fishermen 

 the ' Mackerel Guide,' or Gar-fish. It is a long, slender 

 creature, attaining in its full development a length of 

 nearly four feet, and the thickness of a man's fore-arm. 

 Its skin, while without the Mackerel markings, has 

 the same sheeny iridescence and almost entire absence 

 of scales, which seems to mark it, in spite of its dis- 

 similarity of form, as one of the Mackerel family. 

 But its chief peculiarity is its long, slender bill, like 

 like that of a snipe, but furnished with closely set 

 rows of needle-like teeth. 



For all its elegance it is but a poorly flavoured 

 fish, and though frequently seen in fishmongers' 

 shops is little in demand except as a curiosity. Another 

 strange possession of this fish is its blue bones, which, 

 when the fish is cooked, contrast most strangely with 

 the white flesh. Its association with the Mackerel 

 must be pure coincidence, for I have seen it in parts 

 of the world where, although some members of the 



