240 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



blue and silver, ineffectually struggling to escape, is 

 drawn up on the beach in company with other fish, 

 soles, plaice, dabs, mullet, and, sometimes, salmon. 

 But my experience of mackerel has been chiefly 

 with hook and line in Cornwall, the land of 

 pilchards. 



I think few people would pick out a pilchard 

 from amongst a mass of herrings, and fewer still 

 have eaten them fresh in London, where I have 

 never even seen one. Indeed, even in Cornwall 

 they are not largely in use, but cooked by the 

 "scrowling"' process they are excellent. This 

 method is to split them open and pepper well, 

 place one fish flat on another, backs outside, 

 and grill. 



Once I remember in North Devon a smack put 

 into Ilfracombe with a catch of pilchards, a rare 

 occurrence. They were hawked about the town 

 at a very cheap rate, but few people cared to tr\' 

 them. I did, however, as an experiment, and 

 found the taste pleasant, though rather too oil\-. 



An easy way to distinguish a pilchard from a 

 herring is to hold the fish up b\' the back fin. 

 If it is a pilchard, it will be perfectly horizontal ; 

 if a herring, it will dip do\An out of the 

 straight. Both, of course, belong to the order 

 ' The local term. 



