70 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



exertion they could make was necessary to save them 

 from her tusks, and their oars were too long and clumsy 

 to enable them to strike her with effect. I came most 

 opportunely to the rescue, and by driving a carbine 

 bullet through the seal's brain brought the battle to a 

 close. Never was the old saw of * catching a Tartar' 

 more thoroughly exemplified ; and though we laughed 

 at their terror-stricken countenances, the deep incisions 

 made in the oars and gunnels by the tusks of the enraged 

 animal, showed that gallopading with an angry seal is 

 anything but pleasure." 



Although the mullet are generally first seen here, in 

 the month of June, from the wetness of this summer the 

 shoals are later in their appearance than usual. Mullet 

 are taken in draught-nets like salmon, but on this coast 

 a different mode of fishing is pursued. The shoals in 

 hot weather run in with the tide, and after remaining 

 on the shores and estuaries during flood, they return 

 with the ebbing water. The following method we 

 employed in our fishing to-day : — Being provided 

 with a sufficient quantity of herring-nets and a number 

 of spars and poles, we selected at low water a sandy 

 creek for our operations, and commenced erecting a 

 line of poles across the entrance of the cove. The 

 nets were then extended along these uprights, and also 

 secured firmly to the bottom of the spars ; the lower 

 part of the net is kept upon the bottom by a row of 

 stones, and the remainder laid flat upon the sands. 

 Wth the flowing tide the fish pass over the prostrate 

 net, and run along the estuary : at high water the buoy 

 ropes are raised and secured to the upright poles — and 

 with the assistance of a boat the whole is effected in 

 a few minutes, and a net- work barrier effectually cuts 



