! MACKERELS. 139 
, motion, as well as the increased weight, will tell 
! if a fish be hooked. 
I The author of “ Wild Sports of the West” has 
I graphically depicted his own participation in such 
j a fishing, on the wild and tempest-beaten coast 
! of Connaught. was evident that the Bay 
was full of Mackerel. In every direction, and 
as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins 
were collected ; and, to judge by their activity 
i and clamour, there appeared ample employment 
j for them among the fry beneath. We immedi- 
I ately bore away for the place where these birds 
were most numerously congregated ; and the lines 
were scarcely overboard when we found ourselves 
I in the centre of a shoal of Mackerel, 
i The hooker [or boat] however, had too much 
I way ; we lowered the foresail, double-reefed the 
i mainsail, and then went steadily to work. Di- 
rected by the movements of the birds, we followed 
I the Mackerel, tacking or wearing the boat occa- 
I sionally, when we found that we had overrun the 
I shoa]. For two hours we killed those beautiful 
! fish, as fast as the baits could be renewed and the 
lines hauled in ; and when we left off fishing, 
actually wearied with sport, we found that we 
I had taken above five hundred, including a num- 
ber of the coarser species, known on this coast 
by the name of Horse Mackerel.^ 
There is not on sea or river, always except 
angling for Salmon, any sport comparable to this 
delightful amusement ; full of life and bustle, 
everything about it is animated and exhilarating ; 
a brisk breeze, a fair sky, the boat in quick and 
constant motion, all is calculated to interest and 
^ Caranoo traGlmrus^ Lacep. 
