HERRING. 99 



of the Irish, began to be heard distinctly, and 

 we soon bore down upon the midnight fishers, 

 directed by sound, not sight. To approach the 

 fleet was a task of some difficulty. The nets ex- 

 tended in interminable lines, were so frequent 

 that much skill was necessary to penetrate this 

 hempen labyrinth, without fouling the back ropes, 

 warning cries directed our course, and with some 

 delay we threaded the crowded surface, and, 

 gnidcd by buoys, found ourselves in the very 

 centre of the flotilla. It was an interesting scene : 

 momently the boats glided along the back ropes, 

 which were supported at short intervals by corks, 

 and at a greater by inflated dog-skins, and, raising 

 the curtain of net-work which these suspended, 

 the herrings were removed from the meshes and 

 deposited in the boats. Some of the nets were 

 particularly fortunate, obliging their proprietors 

 to frequently relieve them of the fish, while others, 

 though apparently stretched within a few yards, 

 and consequently in the immediate run of the 

 herrings, were favoured but with a few stragglers, 

 and the unemployed fisherman had to occupy 

 himself with a sorrowful ditty or in moody silence 

 watched the dark sea like some dull ghost waiting 



