COMMON SEA BREAM. 
239 
to rise to the surface and pursue their course, as if engaged 
in some important business of migration, dheir actions under 
these circumstances have sometimes led the managers of Pilchard 
scans into considerable mistakes, from the supposition that they 
■were a body of the latter fish; and the large abundance of 
them thus collected may be judged of by the fact that on one 
occasion, twenty thousand, and on another, as I have been 
informed, sixty thousand were caught in a scan at one time. 
When thus assembled into what is termed a schuU, the fish 
of a given age or stage of growth are found to keep together 
in one body, and instances have occurred where a schuU of 
Chads' or Bream have been enclosed together in a scan, in near 
assemblage with a schull of Pilchards, without intermingling 
with them; under which chcumstances in the proceeding of the 
fishermen, termed tucking, which will be described when we 
give the Natural History of the Pilchard, it has happened that 
the boats have first been loaded with the last-named fishes; and 
when they have returned on the following day to obtain the 
supposed remainder of their prize, to their surprise and dis- 
appointment, they have found nothing to satisfy their hopes but 
to them a wortliless cargo of Breams or Chads. 
A story is known of an adventure of this kind, in which it 
would have been difficult to persuade the fishermen that some 
infernal agency had not been at work to disappoint their 
expectations, and rob them of their gain. A poor woman had 
gone to the sean boat to beg the gift of a few out of a suc- 
cessful capture of Pilchards; and usually such a request would 
not be preferred in vain. But on the present occasion she met 
a refusal, and after uttering some hasty and angry expressions, 
among which was a wish for their future ill-success, she went 
away disappointed. It happened that this poor old woman had 
some indefinite suspicions attached to her, as if she possessed 
an influence with the evil one, who would not be inattentive 
to her imprecations. A retuim to the sean, for the purpose of 
takin- up the remainder of the capture, confirmed the worst 
fears “of the fishermen; for, instead of the expected Pilchards, 
nothim- offered itself but an equal loading of Chads; with the 
accompaniment however of a drowned toad; which was imme- 
diately pronounced to be an unquestionable proof of the witch’s 
proceedings Nor did the result tend to lessen this impression. 
