98 VOYAGE INTO 



is blue till to the middle, and the other half underneath it is 

 green, as if some blue did shine through it. Underneath 

 his belly he is as white as silver, and his finns are white every 

 where. All the colours of this fish shine like unto a silver 

 or golden ground, done over with thin transparent or illu- 

 minating colours. Their eyes are black. It is the beauti- 

 fulest fish of all that I ever saw. This that I describe here 

 was catched in the North Sea, afterwards, on the 2Tth day 

 of June 1673. We did catch some macarels behind Scot- 

 land, by the Island of aS'^. Kilda, which were half blind ; it 

 is occasioned by a black skin that groweth over their eyes 

 in the winter, and cometh off again in the beginning of the 

 summer. We do not see them in the winter, for they run 

 toward the north ; in the summer we see them in the North 

 Sea, and I have seen them also in Spain. We caught them 

 after the following manner : we fastened a bullet, that weighed 

 about two or three pounds, to a line, about a fathom distance 

 from the end, whereon we had fastened a hook ; this hook we 

 baited with a piece of red cloth, and so we flung it into the 

 sea, and towed it behind our ship ; then when the 7nacarel 

 doth swiff,ly shoot at it, he bites upon the hook and so is 

 hung, which you presently perceive by its pulling, as you 

 do when you catch any other fish, notwithstanding that the 

 rope of its own accord doth pull or draw very hard, by rea- 

 son of the sea, so that if you should rowl it about your hand 

 it would benumb your hand in a little time to that degree 

 that you would not be sensible if one should cut it ; where- 

 fore they tye their ropes to the carved work on the stern of 

 the ship, so that sometimes many of them are tyed to the 

 ship by one another, where the ships sail apace ; but this 

 doth hinder the ship very much in its sailing, and I dare 

 say two such ropes draw as much as a man's strength. They 

 catch them also with herring, with a piece whereof they bait 

 the hook, at which they bite sooner than at a red piece of rag 

 or cloth. They eat best if you boil, or broil, or roast them 



