SOME BRITISH SEA FISHES AND FISHING 251 



The lines were out at once, and the sport began. 

 Twig went the Hne I held, and there was a thrilling 

 vibration of something alive at the sea end. Surely 

 not a mackerel, for it tugged and pulled like a big 

 fish ! No one who has not experienced it, can 

 have any idea of the strength of a mackerel in the 

 water. Hauling close up, there was a mackerel, an 

 ordinary one, about ten or eleven inches long to 

 root of tail, and perhaps ij lbs. in weight. 



Every one knows how beautiful even shop 

 mackerel are, but a live one is simply a picture of 

 opalescent colour to look at again and again. Soon 

 we had on the floor of the boat a pile of these 

 studies in blue, purple, green, silver, and gold. 

 Then I caught a couple of big ga.r-fish (or long- 

 noses) one after the other. While being unwillingly 

 dragged over the surface, they looked exactly like 

 water-snakes. They have a long, slender trans- 

 parent body, and a woodcock-like beak studded 

 with small teeth ; their bones are green, hence the 

 abhorrence with which they are generally regarded, 

 but they are good eating. 



Then we ran close inshore and whiffed for 

 pollack. Pollack, or lythe, is a kind of large 

 whiting,^ and one of the commonest fish on all our 

 coasts where there is suitable ground. It loves to 



' Whiting, merlangus. Pollack, merlangus pollachius. 



