268 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



to New York in a Nova Scotia barque, the Scot- 

 tish Bride. She was not copper-bottomed, and 

 as, during her last three years in the Mediterranean 

 she had not once been cleaned, she was very foul 

 with barnacles. She got becalmed off Madeira 

 on a sixty-fathom bank, and the fish rose in 

 hundreds after the barnacles, were caught in great 

 number by the crew, and followed the vessel 

 almost as far as the American coast. 



It cannot be said that this unsophisticated 

 behaviour is what I should have expected of tunny 

 after my experiences off Madeira and Porto Santo, 

 but education may have done something for them, 

 as it has for most fish in both fresh and salt, during 

 the last few years. It may be also that on some 

 future occasion I shall catch them in more friendly 

 mood. If not I, someone else. It matters very 

 little, so long as the thing is done. 



