7 
to the back-bone. The fish writhes under the knife, but 
from muscular action, I think, more than from pain, and 
before the last cut is given it is dead. And this, in my 
opinion, is a much more merciful way of dealing with the 
skate, than allowing it to lie suffocating in the bottom of 
your boat for the hour which it occupies in dying that way. 
I know many good people say that we should kill our fish 
as we catch them. If we could, we would, for they would 
be so much the better for the table, but in most kinds of 
sea fishing this is utterly impossible. Take a mackerel 
seine for instance. A tolerably successful haul ought to 
produce at least 2,000 fish. After the haul commences, 
everything depends on the speed with which it is completed. 
Every hand on board the boat is at it, and in a few minutes 
the 2,000 fish are spluttering about in the bottom of the 
boat. I once took upwards of 6 cwt. of fish, principally 
skate, on a long line of 500 hooks (i.e. 500 fathoms) stretched 
along the bottom of the sea in shallow water, in one haul. 
The whole hauling had to be done with the least possible 
stoppage, and at times the fish came so fast, that the 
boatmen attending on me had not time to unhook them, 
and had to cut away the snoodings. The fish had to lie in 
the bottom of the boat and die, we could not stop to kill 
them. And in the end I found that the line had cut my 
two forefingers almost to the bone. The fish were crueller 
to me that day than I was to the fish. 
Whether viewed for its colour or its form, the mackerel 
is one of the most beautiful of English fish. I need not 
describe it to you. Doubtless its form is familiar to you 
all. And if it is not you have only to go into the fish- 
market here and see it in as much perfection as it can 
retain after a long journey. Beautiful as the mackerel on a 
London fishmonger’s stall is, much more beautiful is it as it 
