to the back-bone. The fish writhes under the knife, but 

 from muscular action, I think, more than from pain, and 

 before the last cut is given it is dead. And this, in my 

 opinion, is a much more merciful way of dealing with the 

 skate, than allowing it to lie suffocating in the bottom of 

 your boat for the hour which it occupies in dying that way. 

 I know many good people say that we should kill our fish 

 as we catch them. If we could, we would, for they would 

 be so much the better for the table, but in most kinds of 

 sea fishing this is utterly impossible. Take a mackerel 

 seine for instance. A tolerably successful haul ought to 

 produce at least 2,000 fish. After the haul commences, 

 everything depends on the speed with which it is completed. 

 Every hand on board the boat is at it, and in a few minutes 

 the 2,000 fish are spluttering about in the bottom of the 

 boat. I once took upwards of 6 cwt. of fish, principally 

 skate, on a long line of 500 hooks (i.e. 500 fathoms) stretched 

 along the bottom of the sea in shallow water, in one haul. 

 The whole hauling had to be done with the least possible 

 stoppage, and at times the fish came so fast, that the 

 boatmen attending on me had not time to unhook them, 

 and had to cut away the snoodings. The fish had to lie in 

 the bottom of the boat and die, we could not stop to kill 

 them. And in the end I found that the line had cut my 

 two forefingers almost to the bone. The fish were crueller 

 to me that day than I was to the fish. 



Whether viewed for its colour or its form, the mackerel 

 is one of the most beautiful of English fish. I need not 

 describe it to you. Doubtless its form is familiar to you 

 all. And if it is not you have only to go into the fish- 

 market here and see it in as much perfection as it can 

 retain after a long journey. Beautiful as the mackerel on a 



London fishmonger's stall is, much more beautiful is it as it 



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