POLLACK AND PILCHARDS 91 



My first visit to the place was with an ex-naval 

 officer, since dead, whom only failing eyesight 

 prevented from contesting the division in the Con- 

 servative interest. He was a marvellous fisher- 

 man with the handline, considering that on his 

 bad days he could not see a yard in front of him, 

 but the rod and reel he was of course unable to 

 manage. With Marshall we fished on board the 

 Eva, as trim a lugger as ever tacked across St. 

 Austell bay, from the middle of July until the 

 last day in August, and during that time we caught 

 altogether upwards of a thousand fish, of which 

 309 were mackerel, 243 pollock and 206 whiting, 

 the balance being made up of blue and porbeagle 

 sharks, of which we caught nine, and a miscellany 

 of rays, bream, gurnard, scad, plaice, dabs, wrasse 

 and pout. Though we caught not a single bass, 

 and only indeed made one half-hearted attempt 

 on a very rough day, this was the best mixed 

 fishing that I had taken part in. No exceptionally 

 big fish were included in the bag. The best shark 

 (a porbeagle) turned the scale at 30 Ibs., the best 

 conger at 24 (I killed this on the rod), and several 

 pollack at 12 Ibs. 



The most memorable episode at Mevagissey 

 that far off July was a raging fire one Friday night. 

 Breaking out in a net loft, the flames ran like 

 lightning along the congested buildings, their pro- 

 gress, favoured by a drought of long endurance 



