102 ROCK-FISHING. 



to bag. The sole survivor probably roaded off during the 

 slaughter, or threw himself into a hole in the heath, for we 

 could not make him out. 



From our opening essay, we reckoned that this would prove 

 an exterminating day ; but with the destruction of this pack 

 our sport might be said to cease. For hours we traversed hills 

 and crossed moors, meeting but one weak brood and a few 

 stagers. We did find another brood, but the poults were 

 scarcely able to leave the ground, and consequently were too 

 weak for shooting. From their appearance, we concluded 

 them to be a second progeny of birds, who had lost their first 

 eggs by robbery or vermin. We met, however, a number of 

 hares, and shot seven. These, with thirteen brace of grouse, 

 filled the game bags. 



Our course homewards lay along the base of Slieve More. 

 The evening was calm and sultry, and a number of men and 

 women of all ages were seated on the rocks fishing for gun- 

 ners,* or gaffing the horse-mackerel, which were seen in 

 numbers on the surface of the water. 



This rock-fishing is more dangerous than productive, and 

 many lives have been lost in pursuing it. Descending the 

 precipices to reach the water's edge is attended with imminent 

 risk : and as sudden and terrible swells come in frequently and 

 unexpectedly from the Atlantic, many fishers have been swept 

 off the rocks, and perished. Another perilous occupation of 

 the female peasants is what they term " picking cranagh." 

 This sea-weed, which forms a favourite esculent of the 

 islanders, grows on the rocks that are but occasionally 

 covered by the sea. Exposure to sudden swells from the 

 ocean attends those who search for it, and loss of life has too 

 often occurred. 



* The gunner is the common name given to the sea-bream by the 

 fishermen of the western coast. They are found near the shore, in from 

 five to fifteen fathom water, where the bottom is foul and rocky. The 

 gunners are pretty, but insipid fish, and in variety of colour differ from 

 each other more than any species of the finny tribe I have met with. In 

 size, they seldom exceed three or four pounds : but from the avidity with 

 hich they bite, they afford excellent amusement when the breeze is not 

 sufficiently stiff to allow a take of mackerel and coal-fish. The bait 

 generally used for gunners, is a small crab, broken, and bound about the 

 hook with a thread ; and two hooks affixed to a trap- stick, with a light 

 leaden plummet, comprise the simple apparatus requisite for this kind of 

 sea fishing. 



