276 NIGHT EXCURSION. 



accompanied by a beating on her breast, which, like the signal 

 to a chorus, elicited a fresh ebullition from the subordinate 

 mourners. John, however, interposed his authority effectu- 

 ally. " Badahust,' hanamondioul, badahust, I say ! ye may 

 keinagh at the funeral, but ye mustn't disturb the master and 

 the company." This jobation restored tranquillity, and in 

 cc decent grief" the otter-killer's corpse was duly laid out in its 

 funeral habiliments. 



The evening wore on heavily my kinsman was sensibly 

 affected ; his old monitor in the gentle art was gone ; and 

 though full in years, and ripe for the tomb, his master felt, 

 that " he could have better spared a better man." There was 

 heart-sinking about our party which I had never marked 

 before. The wine had lost its charm ; and while the Colonel 

 and the Priest commenced a game of piquet, my cousin ordered 

 the gig, and proposed that we should pull over to the herring- 

 boats, which in the next estuary, and on the preceding night, 

 had been unusually successful. Accordingly, having lighted 

 our pipes and procured our boat-cloaks, we left the pier-head 

 in the four-oared galley. 



The night was unusually dark and warm ; not a breath of 

 wind was on the water ; the noise of the oars, springing in the 

 coppered rullocks, was heard for a mile off, and the whistle of 

 sandpipers and jack curlews, as they took wing from the beach 

 we skirted, appeared unusually shrill. Other noises gradually 

 broke the stillness of the night the varied hum of numerous 

 voices chanting the melancholy songs which are the especial 

 favourites of the Irish, began to be heard distinctly and 

 we soon bore down upon the midnight fishers, directed by 

 sound, not sight. 



To approach the fleet was a task of some difficulty. The 

 nets, extended in interminable lines, were so frequent, that 

 much skill was necessary to penetrate this hempen labyrinth, 

 without fouling the back ropes. Warning cries directed our 

 course, and with some delay we threaded the crowded surface, 

 and, guided by buoys and puckawns, found ourselves in the 

 very centre of the flottilla. 



It was an interesting scene. Momently the boats glided 

 along the back ropes, which were supported at short intervals 

 by corks, and at a greater by inflated dog-skins, arid, raising 

 the curtain of network which these suspended, the herrings 



