three, two, and one pound weight, with a pair of half-pounders for light weather; when the three pounds are in use, the halves may be kept on board, and vice versa.

The length of line is, for the three pounders five fathoms, two ditto seven fathoms, one pound nine fathoms, and halves twelve fathoms; and the length of snood below the lead, one and a half fathom for the three pounders, two fathoms for the two pounders, and two and a half for the leads of one, and of a half-pound weight, to the ends of which two or three feet of the strongest single silkworm Salmon-gut is added, and to this the hook is bent. At Plymouth for some years gimp has been used for snood between the lead and the gut bottom. It is very pleasant to use, as it is weighty and does not readily blow on board when cast to windward, but must not be trusted beyond one season, as the salt-water causes verdigris, which rots the silk inside. The half-breadth sheer boat-shaped leads are now used for Mackerel-fishing under sail with success at Plymouth. See p. 45.

Six feet of very stout cord should be fastened to the inner end of each line, which will not chafe away so quickly as the line itself as it passes over the gunwale of the boat, and, at the other end of the line above the lead, a piece of whalebone or elder-wood, 3 inches in length, should revolve on a short leather sling to which the line is bent on, as shown in the cut.

The hole in this piece of wood or whalebone should be large enough to allow of its working freely, which will tend to prevent fouling.

The best snooding double Shrewsbury

The stoutest kip upper leather is preferred for the sling; cut a strip 3 inches long, the breadth equal to the thickness, make a half-inch slit near each end, pare off the edges, and round it by rolling it under foot on the floor. is that of the double Bridport flax make, or thread, No. 18, laid up by a rope-maker. The lines with one pound and half-pound leads are also very useful in Pollackfishing, in sailing or rowing, to save the wear of the horse-hair lines.

Boats above 6 tons often tow four-pound leads in front, and use besides a pair of threes and twos; this is chiefly in strong

winds. With boats under 17 feet over all, leads of two, one, and half a pound are sufficiently heavy. Those of half a pound are weighty enough for a rowing-boat in a calm, but for quick pulling, one pound.

The best bait is a slice of the tail of the fish ; and to cut it, take a Mackerel by the tail, and turning it on its right side, with the head between your knees, enter the knife on its left side 2 inches above the tail, and cut down nearly to where the tail-fin joins the tail, then withdraw the knife, and passing it lightly across, take up the bait, and lay it on a piece of cork with the bright side downwards; now pass the hook through the smaller end, and all is complete (fig. 40).

Be careful not to cut below the red flesh, which is the first layer under the skin, or the bait will be too thick to fillip or flip in the water, upon which much of its attractiveness depends; the fish admits of the bait being cut thinner from the left than

FIG. 40.-Baited Hook for Mackerel-railing.

from the right side, which is therefore preferred. This bait is termed a last, lask, float, or fion.

Having met with, or as it is called struck, the fish, you will probably take many without any check, but immediately you lose them, wear the boat round on her heel and run back over the same course, when you will probably strike them again.

Five or six hundred Mackerel, or even more, are frequently taken in a day by this method of fishing, under the favouring circumstances of a cloudy sky and a fresh breeze; but under oars a hundred fish is much above the average.

In the early part of the season, when the fish are shy, a dead Sand-Eel is used to bait the hook with much success. (See fig. 25, Freshwater Eel bait, dead, p. 82, for baiting the hook with it.)

Booms or Bobbers for Mackerel-fishing.-The Hampshire and Devonshire fishermen, and those of some other portions of the coast, use a stout rod or small spar rigged out over the gunwale of the boat, the length of which is about 15 or 16 feet; two of these rods, booms, or bobbers, are secured to the main rigging of the boat, so that they may not drag backwards by the strain of the lines, which hang from the tops of these bobbers, being made fast to a separate piece of line, one end of which is secured to the top of the rod, the other to the fishing line, the end of which with the reel is kept inboard. (See A Day with the Mackerel,' p. 131). In large boats exceeding 4 feet draught, they are useful to keep the lines out of the disturbed water, but in small boats their advantage is questionable. With the graduated lines here described, in Guernsey the fishermen are just as successful without them.

It is possible to go too fast for Mackerel at four miles an hour the heavy leads will do good service; carry therefore only sufficient sail to ensure good 'dray-way' through

the water.

Artificial Baits consist of white and red feather, or other gaudy flies (see fig. 33, p. 89), or mother-of-pearl fish 2 inches long, and of late years artificial spinning baits have been introduced. They are especially useful for Mackerel-fishing, although other kinds of fish are taken with them. Every amateur should keep a few by him, as they are as cheap as useful. I prefer them with one hook for Mackerel-fishing. A bit of tobaccopipe (fig. 41) is often used by fishermen with much success,

and the best plan of fixing it is as here represented, which can, however, only be managed with a Limerick hook; having no flattened top, this will enter the hole in the pipe easily. However, sea-fishermen often use it with a common sea-hook, and

with success, but it is not nearly as snug a method of fitting it. The hook must be whipped on with fine silk, and the edge of the pipe-hole be scraped with a pointed pair of scissors, that it may not chafe off the snooding, which should also be lapped round with silk an inch above the top of the pipe.

By rowing to windward of the shoal of the fish and casting the flies with a rod, as for Trout, Mackerel are also caught. Not unfrequently using two flies, you will take a Pollack on one and a Mackerel on the other.

GROUND MACKEREL-FISHING.

It is the habit of Mackerel, in the latter part of the summer and through the autumn, to feed much at the bottom, or, as fishermen term it, 'to strike the ground.'

Ground-fishing for Mackerel is quite an institution in Plymouth Sound, and two men usually fish sitting down in each boat, one at the stern, the other at the bow, a line in each hand. It is followed from the middle of July until October. Fifty to eighty boats may be seen thus occupied, and many hundred dozens of Mackerel are thus caught in a day.

The ordinary tackle and bait, as described for whiffing, is not fitted for their capture under these circumstances, and a special arrangement is necessary. This ground-fishing for Mackerel is chiefly followed where there is very little or no tide, and leads of either the pipe or boat-shape may be used, the latter having a horse-hair loop or stiffener projecting from each end, not less than half the length of the lead itself. Το this add a trace of four feet of gimp or triple-twisted gut, with two lengths of selected single gut for the hook link, and a hook size No. 10 (fig. 63, p. 211). The bait in general use for this ground-fishing is a piece of Pilchard, Pilchard gut, or Squid. To prepare a Pilchard for bait, remove the scales without damage to the skin, which requires some care, score it across diagonally with a very sharp knife or an old razor, at not quite -inch intervals, pass the knife underneath, and remove the pieces, which should be cut as thin as possible. Squid is often used together with Pilchard, and should be cut of a dagger

form, and only of an inch in thickness. Hook on the squid first, the large end uppermost, and then the piece of pilchard, placing the silver side outermost. Sound the bottom, and raise the lead sufficiently to keep the bait just off the ground. Small mussels are quite as killing as pilchard for this method of fishing, but this is little known. Living Sand-Eels are also excellent bait. In a tide-way the light drift-lines with pipe leads answer with any of the above-named baits. It is best by jerking the line to keep the bait in constant motion, which is termed 'bobbing.' For want of a Squid or Cuttle, use a slip of parchment.

A DAY WITH THE MACKEREL.

'There is not on sea or river (always excepting Salmonfishing) any sport comparable to this delightful amusement. He who has experienced the glowing sensations of sailing on the Western Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above, a deep green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of it as the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite enjoyment our morning's Mackerel-fishing afforded.' Thus far the author of 'Wild Sports of the West.'

It was on a fine morning in the month of July that I determined on a day's hook and line Mackerel-fishing, or, as it is not unfrequently termed, reeling or trailing. The weather was fine, yet cloudy, whilst a pleasant breeze from the east, increasing as the sun approached the meridian, rippled the previously mirrorlike surface of the summer sea.

The easterly wind has this frequent peculiarity, that it increases until about two o'clock in the day, or a little later, and sinks to rest with the declining sun. The locality is an open beach of pebbly shingle, terminated at its eastern extremity by a cliff, immediately under which there falls into the sea a small river, whose entrance is so barred with shingle that it is closed to even the smallest boat, ay, even to a Salmon, for nine hours out of twelve. Anything like a boat of tonnage cannot of course, under such circumstances, be made use of, as the harbour being so frequently inaccessible from the sea, and the sea from the harbour, the craft, although afloat in ten feet at

K