A DAY WITH THE MACKEREL. 133 



to attend his bobber lines as if rejuvenated. The fish took 

 thenceforward with great briskness, and I really believe we 

 captured more than a hundred on one tack towards the offing, 

 with little or no check, when they ceased suddenly, as is 

 commonly the case, without assignable cause other than that 

 we may suppose all the shoal to have been caught. We there- 

 fore wore again and stood in towards the land, but did not 

 strike the fish for some time, of which I did not complain, for, 

 to tell the truth, my back ached with continual stooping ; and 

 nature very plainly asserting that she abhorred a vacuum, we 

 availed ourselves of the respite afforded to take some refresh- 

 ment before renewing our labours. 



In another quarter of an hour we again fell in with the fish, 

 and both happening to be hauling at the same time, old John 

 with the lee bobber and the writer with the weather-quarter 

 line, by a piece of ill-luck or mal-adroitness, or both combined, 

 the two fish contrived to sheer across the stern of the boat 

 towards each other after the leads were on board, crossing not 

 only each other, but also taking a turn round the lee-quarter 

 line, thereby of course making a pretty considerable foul, in- 

 creased every moment by the sudden movements of the fish 

 the personification of two animated weavers' shuttles, as they 

 darted to and fro under the boat's quarter. This was, of 

 course, particularly annoying, as we were clearly again in the 

 midst of the fish, for the weather bobber plainly showed, by its 

 jerking and bending, that a fish was fast to it ; but we let the 

 Mackerel remain to keep the shoal in tow, and getting one of 

 the fish and the foul on board in a lump for the other had 

 escaped we set ourselves to work, having put the fore-sheet 

 to windward, 'to undo the knotted hank,' having first over- 

 hauled the remaining line, which yielded us a second fish. 



Reader mine, were you ever similarly circumstanced? 

 Have you been compelled to fish with snoodings of thread or 

 barber's twist, and had the ill-luck to foul them when the fish 

 were biting as fast as you could tend the lines ? 



If so, you will be able to appreciate the annoyance, for, O 

 miserie! you may nearly as well endeavour to disentangle a 

 wetted spider's web as to clear a foul of this description, and 



