VISITING ACHIL 123 



by the fishermen of the western coast. They are found 

 near the shore, in from five to fifteen fathom water, 

 where the bottom is foul and rocky. The gunners are 

 pretty but insipid fish, and in variety of colour differ 

 from each other more than any species of the finny tribe 

 I have met with. In size they seldom exceed three or 

 four pounds : but from the avidity with which they 

 bite, they afford excellent amusement when the breeze 

 is not sufficiently stiff to allow a take of mackerel and 

 coal-fish. The bait generally used for gunners, is a 

 small crab, broken and bound about the hook with a 

 thread, and two hooks affixed to a trap-stick, with a 

 light leaden plummet, comprise the simple apparatus 

 requisite for this kind of sea-fishing. 



This rock-fishing is more dangerous than productive, 

 and many lives have been lost in pursuing it. Descend- 

 ing the precipices to reach the water's edge, is attended 

 with imminent risk : and as sudden and terrible swells 

 come in frequently and unexpectedly from the Atlantic, 

 many fishers have been swept off the rocks, and perished. 

 Another perilous occupation of the female peasants 

 is what they term " picking cranagh." This sea- weed, 

 which forms a favourite esculent of the islanders, grows 

 on the rocks that are but occasionally covered by the sea. 

 Exposure to sudden swells from the ocean attends 

 those who search for it, and loss of life has too often 

 occurred. 



One accident, which happened not long since, was 

 truly melancholy. A woman, the mother of several 

 helpless children, and who, but a month before, had 

 given birth to twins, perished in the sight of her family. 

 No relief in such cases can be given : the reflux of these 

 mountainous waves bears the victims away, and, with 



