3i8 ALONGSHORE v 



when ships cut across the nets or bad weather 

 destroys them,' 



'Anyhow,' said we, still feeling that the loss of 

 nets is a miserable job, 'you have got a catch.* 

 The trunks were almost full of dying and soiled 

 herrings. 



'A catch!' snorted the skipper; 'a very 

 middling catch I It is not more than eighty 

 thousand.' (Which was, in fact, the number in 

 round figures.) 'A good catch is nearer three 

 hundred thousand, I have seen these decks so piled 

 with herrings that you could not walk on them.' 



'Full speed ahead,' he signalled to the engine- 

 room, giving the course to the helmsman, 'I am 

 going to run under shelter of the land. It is 

 farther, but I do not wish the catch washed over- 

 board. Bad weather, this is — the worst of all 

 winds for us — beastly bad weather ! Good ! here 

 is your breakfast.' 



They brought us a tin of mackerel chunks, 

 with potatoes baked in butter, which we could not 

 eat, for the air of the salon a chaufer had taken 

 away our appetites. Nearer land, owing to shoal 

 water or tide-rips, both swell and shop were 

 higher than ever. We saw then, without going 

 so far as Iceland, the use of the Marie-Mar the' s 



