158 SNAPPING MACKEREL. 



as they swim or are drifted along unsuspiciously. He 

 makes one dash, a dozen startled spearing leap into the 

 air, and swim for dear life ; but the victim is generally 

 carried off, a dainty and epicurean meal. 



Spearing invariably swim near the surface ; they haunt 

 the gates of tide-mills when the tide is rising, and are 

 drifted in with the current when the gates open before 

 the advancing waters. The snappers take the opportu- 

 nity, not merely to plunge among the shoals before the 

 gates lift, but afterward, when the spearing, who are 

 helpless in a strong current, are swept along, to pounce 

 upon them. 



Of course in such places they can be captured with 

 most success. "When they first make their appearance, 

 not longer than your forefinger, but tender and delicate 

 beyond belief, they may be found at low water in the 

 rivulets of white froth that run bubbling from holes and 

 leaks in the mill-gates. The best mode of taking them 

 at this time, for they are small and fastidious, is with a 

 salmon-rod and a tiny spearing on a Limerick hook ; by 

 making casts and drawing the bait along the surface of 

 the water and through the frothy eddies, the young inno- 

 cents are deceived, and thinking to prey upon their 

 weaker brethren, become themselves a palatable viand 

 for larger creatures. They break like trout, without 

 throwing themselves out of water, but with a noisy snap, 

 and if they miss the bait at first, will follow it resolutely. 

 It is no mean sport to stand upon the old worm-eaten, 

 weather-stained bridge, and wield the long rod, playing 

 your allurement over the water to the music of the rush- 

 ing current and the steady clack of the mill-wheel, and 



