ON SEA AND SHORE 81 



only a few mackerel, but we had a great deal of 

 exercise. 



How do we catch mackerel ? As you are asking 

 how we do it, and not how it is done by the heart- 

 less, unimaginative, commercialized Philistines who 

 chase the schools in steam vessels, I'll tell you. 

 The night before, the captain gets the fodder 

 ready. I mean the fodder for the mackerel, not 

 for the fishermen. It is about as nauseous a mess 

 as one can imagine. Salted menhaden and the 

 refuse from scallops are ground up together, form- 

 ing a mass of about the consistency of thick 

 molasses. There is the grinder now, just inside 

 the cabin ! Looks like a big coffee-mill. 



We usually start early in the morning, some- 

 times before daylight, in order to take advantage 

 of a favourable tide. When we are out to sea a 

 sharp lookout is kept for that peculiar ripple on 

 the surface of the water which denotes the presence 

 of a school of mackerel. When we have sailed to 

 the spot we " come-to " and drift with the tide, 

 while dipperful after dipperful of the " chum " 

 as the sticky and malodorous mess is called is 

 thrown out upon the water. The mackerel will 

 throng about the boat to feed upon this dainty, and 

 then the fishing begins. Empty barrels on deck, a 

 line some fifteen feet long in each hand, with 

 hooks that are set into pieces of lead forming a 

 " squid," and the sport begins. It is usual to bait 

 with a piece of mackerel belly, pure white; but 



