MULLETS AND MACKEREL. 271 



some of them very fine ones, who actually astonished us with their 

 wonderful strength ; indeed such as it seemed scarcely possible for 

 fishes of their size to have exhibited. When we commenced the 

 water was cairn and clear, and we could perceive a great number 

 surrounding the boat. At first they were shy of biting, and the 

 only way to entice them was by drawing the bait rapidly through 

 the water, when all hands or rather fins would make a start after 

 it ; but soon afterwards a light breeze springing up, we put on a 

 float each, which continued to disappear almost as fast as we cast 

 it into the water. The bait we used was first a rag worm, but 

 subsequently a portion of some of the mackerel we had previously 

 caught, which those cannibals preferred to any other bait we offered 

 them ; a piece of a bright silver whiting being absolutely rejected 

 by them. 



As a further proof of mullet being adapted to fresh water, Mr. 

 Yarrell mentions that where a number of these fish, of about the 

 size of a finger, were put into Mr. Arnould's fresh water pond in 

 Guernsey, " after a few years mullet of four pounds weight were 

 caught, which proved fatter, deeper, and heavier for their length than 

 those taken from the sea." 



Mullets have been celebrated for their conjugal affection, and it 

 is said that if one is hooked the mate will follow it to the surface, 

 evincing great woe and anguish ; and I myself have often witnessed, 

 when I have been playing a large mullet, that another has closely 

 pursued it, but as I then ignorantly supposed with no other motives 

 than to come in for a share of the bait, which he or she, as the 

 case may be, believed the other to be selfishly absconding with ; 

 but I had not then read Du Bartas with sufficient attention, who 

 clearly explains the whole in the following lines, which to confess 

 the plain truth I am now indebted to honest Izaak for, as he 

 quotes them in the early part of the Complete Angler, praying 

 those he addresses to hearken to what the piscatory poet sings of 

 the mullet, 



" But for chaste love the mullet hath no peer, 

 For if the fisher hath surprised her pheer, 

 As mad with woe, to shore she followeth, 

 Prest to consort him both in life and death," 



