Catching Menhaden off Montauk 



r 



tint that ever burned in a sunset, or tinged a gem- 

 crystal, or painted the petals of a flower, was cast 

 in lovely confusion into that dark hold. There 

 lay the raw materials of beauty the gorgeous 

 elements out of which dyes are resolved : abstract 

 bits of lustrous azure and purple, crimson and 

 gold, and those indefinable greenish and pearly 

 tints that make the luminous background of all 

 celestial sun-painting. As the steamer rolled on 

 the billows, and the sun struck the wet and trem- 

 ulous mass at this and that angle, or the whole 

 was in the half-shadow of the deck, now a cerulean 

 tint, now a hot brazen glow, would spread over all 

 for an instant, until the wriggling mixture of olive 

 backs and pearly bellies and nacreous sides, with 

 scarlet blood-spots where the cruel twine had 

 wounded, was buried beneath a new stratum. 



" How many? " I asked, when all were in. 



"Hundred and ten thousand," replied Captain 

 Hawkins. "Pretty fair, but I took three times 

 as many at one haul last week." 



"What are they worth?" 



" Oh, something over a hundred dollars. Hard 

 a-starboard! go ahead slow." 

 ^ 279 $+> 



