SOME REMARKS ON 



wonderfully like mackerel; it has gained its nickname 

 on account of its being so frequently found at the head 

 of a shoal of mackerel that are coming into the shallows 

 to spawn. 



Sometimes, among the heaving mass that is being 

 turned over and sorted, a broad sheet of light grey shows 

 itself, and a big tail pokes its way through a crowd of 

 smaller fry and lashes itself irritably up and down, thus 

 displaying dark stripes along the lower part of the body 

 to which it belongs. Every man instinctively snatches up 

 his knife or a bit of wood and prepares to defend himself. 



" Tis a sea-cat ; look out ! " shouts everybody in one 

 breath ; and, as the spiteful monster raises its ugly head 

 and opens its mouth, a prudent fisherman salutes it with 

 a cut across the nose, or pins it down to the deck with a 

 knife -blade. This unlovely creature sea -cat, cat-fish, 

 or wolf-fish is a vicious beast, whose bite is " ten degrees 

 worse,*" as the fishermen say, than a conger's ; at any rate 

 it is often more painful, and some even maintain that it 

 is poisonous. The fish is about six feet long, its flesh is 

 much prized by the poorer classes, and its skin is so 

 tough and durable that the Scotch and Irish fishers make 

 bags of it. It is exceedingly savage, and will snap at 

 anyone who goes near it. 



The stranger on board an Irish smack need not be 

 astonished or alarmed at seeing an occasional monster 

 thirty feet long, lying on the water, or even inquisitively 

 shoving his muzzle over the taffrail. 



" An' indeed it's no shark at all ; 'tis a sun-fish, SUIT," 

 the Irishman will tell him ; generally adding a rider to 



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