SOME REMARKS ON 



peculiarities apart, he is a splendid fellow at sea, whose 

 unfailing courage and brilliant flashes of inspiration will 

 help him to steer round rocks and currents like the best 

 pilot that ever sailed out of harbour. 



To see him at his best you want to watch him trawling 

 or line-fishing under an English or Scotch skipper whose 

 rule is "no beer on board." Plaice, mullet, hake, sole, 

 turbot, these are what he is trawling for and, with a 

 good wind, what he will catch ! If he is line-fishing he 

 wants ling and halibut and cod. Often one gear takes 

 fish that is expected in the other ; turbot and brill will 

 sometimes swarm on the lines ; or a couple of huge 

 congers will wriggle about in the trawl. The lines are 

 probably hand-lines; for not many Irish families would 

 give up a whole day or more to the baiting of a creel- 

 full of hooks. 



I have never met the man who could truthfully say 

 that he liked conger-fishing ; if a conger should come up 

 in the trawl, nobody cares much how soon it worms its 

 way through a port-hole and out into the sea again. One 

 would almost as soon have a boa-constrictor for a fellow- 

 passenger; many a fisherman can show horrible scars 

 caused by the bite of one of these gentry. Fancy having 

 a thing that weighs nearly a hundredweight, is thicker 

 than a man's arm, and more than eight feet long, going 

 about on deck seeking whom he may devour ! They are 

 as savage and voracious as sharks, and do undoubtedly 

 devour their own brethren, though not in the orderly 

 manner quoted above. If they once get their teeth into 

 anything, even decapitation will not loose them, and the 



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