A DAY'S WHITING-FISHING. 59 



lines on the other side of the boat, first carefully putting out 

 those which we had just hauled in. The lines on the other 

 side we also found loaded ; and as the Whiting were now 

 evidently well on the feed, we had no occasion to stop to 

 feel them, but dragged away as a matter of course, first on one 

 side, then on the other, until the boxes began to make a very 

 respectable show of fish. Having taken four Mackerel on our 

 way out, we cut up a couple of them for bait, as the skin is 

 much tougher than the Pilchard, and the hooks are conse- 

 quently not so often robbed. 



After we had continued fishing some time, rather a lull 

 occurred in our sport, and I determined to put out a drift-line 

 for Pollack, which are occasionally taken of great size on 

 the Whiting-ground. Desiring Hannibal, therefore, to split a 

 Gurnard in two (of which fish we had taken six or eight), I 

 took one side, and, hooking it through one end with a medium- 

 sized Cod-hook, cast it overboard, paying out about twenty-five 

 fathoms. I attached to the bight of the line a small tin bailer 

 I happened to have on board, so that my attention would be 

 attracted if a fish should seize the bait whilst I was occupied 

 with my Whiting lines. 



I had again been hauling Whiting for some minutes when 

 suddenly the tin bailer struck the gunwale and bounded over- 

 board ; and on taking hold of the line I found I had hooked a 

 fine fish, which bore down hard, so that I could not venture 

 to haul on him but with care and caution, for the strength of 

 a large Pollack is very great when he chooses to exert it. I 

 brought him steadily upwards some distance, when he started 

 off again, and required some little amount of coaxing before I 

 could get him alongside ; but Hannibal, standing ready with 

 the gaff, at length hooked him under the jowl, and lifted him on 

 board. He was a famous Pollack, weighing fully twelve pounds, 

 but they are sometimes taken of as much as eighteen. 



I put out also a drift-line, having a small Mackerel hook 

 baited with the ordinary last or slip of skin cut from the tail of 

 that fish, and with this took a Scoot the West-country appel- 

 lation of the Long-Nose or Gar-fish. This as well as the 

 four Mackerel are cut up as supplementary bait for the 



