should be toasted first, and being placed in a basin and kept at the bottom, let boiling water be poured on them for two minutes, after which a little butter should be rubbed over them immediately, which method will extract any superabundance of

salt.

In drying fish the great difficulty is to avoid the depredations of cats, to do which I sometimes suspend them on a line stretched across the garden with hooks at intervals of nine inches, trot fashion. Another good plan is to have a light wood frame, about 4 ft. by 5 ft., with cross bars at intervals of a foot, into which tenter-hooks are to be driven to receive the tails of the fish. It can be suspended at any height, as most convenient. The fish should not overlap each other.

Drifting on the Whiting-Ground.—In a calm or laid to, Whiting are often caught as a vessel drifts with the tide. It is constantly practised by the North Sea Cod-smacks; and the Orkney and Shetlanders use a drift-sail in the water as a floating anchor. It is not much followed by boats and small craft, but sometimes by bending on a piece of chain to the cable to check the drift. If laid to, fish on the weather side. As a rule, it is best to anchor.

A DAY'S WHITING-FISHING.

One fine morning in July I threw up my window and looked out across Cawsand Bay and the entrance of Plymouth Sound. In front of me rode tranquilly at her moorings my little ‘Fairy,’—a dandy-rigged yacht of seven tons—and several fishing-boats, some of which had already slipped their buoys, were getting up their canvas as they slowly drifted, rather than sailed, out of the bay before the light morning breeze. A shower of gravel at the staircase-window told me that old man-of-war's man was at the door; and hastening below, I gave him a fish-box to carry, told him to launch the punt, then rushed upstairs to make a hasty toilette, and, taking with me a basket contain, ing some provision for the day, I was soon on the beach.

my

It was but four o'clock, consequently much too early for breakfast; and, besides, the time is much better spent in

sailing towards the 'Whiting-ground,' which the fish frequent at a greater or less distance from the shore according to the time of the year, keeping well in the offing abreast or outside the Eddystone early in the season, and nearing the shore as summer merges into autumn. As we pulled out to the little bark, several boats returning from their night's fishing were passing the Breakwater lighthouse, and from one near us we procured a supply of Pilchards, which is the chief bait used on this coast from July to December, but in the earlier part of the season Mackerel and Mussels are in general alone procurable.

Having arrived on board, and our canvas being set and sheets eased off, the bachelor's kettle is put in commission. 'Coffee's ready, sir,' says Hannibal (for such is the 'Christian' name in which my man rejoices), and, giving him the helm, I adjourned to the little cabin to take my early meal. We had long since passed Penlee Point, abreast of which, as we hauled our wind, we set the foresail, and the breeze came down with increased freshness from the high land of the peninsula terminated by Rame Head, the outermost point of Plymouth Sound.

Thinking it was as well to try for a Mackerel or two, I put out a couple of my heaviest lines fitted with 3-lb. leads; and as I had not then met with Hearder's plano-convex spinner, I used as a bait a bit of tobacco pipe about an inch and half in length, cutting off the snood from the hook, and, after threading on the pipe stem, making fast the snood again to the hook. One line, however, I kept on board to receive a bait from the tail of a fish if I succeeded in taking one, which happened in ten minutes after putting out the first line, when I immediately baited and veered out a second, first giving the helm to Hannibal whilst I cut the bait. To do this with facility both hands are needed; and it is best to kill the fish, if only to avoid cruelty, by dislocating the vertebræ at the neck, bending back the head for that purpose. From the Rame Head we kept our course into the offing about forty minutes, by which time we were well on the ground, and nearly up with several boats which had probably arrived at daylight. We had caught only our Mackerel on our way; these, however, were very accept

able, for if our Pilchards ran short one or two of them would make excellent bait for the Whiting. We had lowered our topsail some time previously, and now took in the foresail, intending to pick up a berth at a reasonable distance from a boat we were approaching. As we ran past the stern of this boat, which belonged to our bay, Hannibal hailed with, 'Well, skipper, how d'ye rise 'em?'

'With their heads upwards, Hannibal, with their heads upwards,' exclaimed he, making use of a standing joke amongst fishermen. 'Us an't a din (done) so bad; about five dizzen, I reckon,' looking down into the boat's bottom, and still hauling away at his line in that steady business-like manner which is so characteristic of an old fisherman when he feels he has his hooks loaded.

Just as we were passing out of hail I observed the lead come on board; a couple of fathoms more, and he swung into the boat three fine Whiting (one on each hook), fresh baited, hove his lead clear of the side of the boat, and turned to tend his other line, on which he found a pair of fish on getting it on board.

'That looks well, Hannibal,' said I; 'I think we shall have something more than a water-haul to-day.'

'No doubt o' that, sir,' rejoined Hannibal; 'there's a fine school of fish on the coast; but I think we're a brave berth from the other boat now.'

'Well, then,' I observed, 'down jib, and let go the anchor; I'll see the cable clear, and you can clap on a bit of service before coming aft to lower the mainsail.' The foresail had been taken in two or three minutes previously.

As soon as we were fairly brought up, and the sails stowed and coated, we got out our ground-lines-a pair of which are worked by each man when two are in the boat-the after leads each of 2 lbs. weight, the forward pair nearly 4 lbs., in order that the lines may tail away at a different angle, and not become entangled. Off Plymouth they commonly use the boat-shaped sinker, with a stiffened tail at each end equal to half the length of the lead-which we may, to carry out the similitude, term a bowsprit and outrigger, for these, projecting from either end of

the lead, keep the line and snood apart in descending, without which they would twist round each other and foul constantly. My old man-of-war's man used a sid-strap-or, as in freshwater parlance it would be termed, a trace-12 feet in length, to which he bent on a snood with three hooks, after the manner of a bottom or collar used in fly-fishing; this added another 3 ft., making in the whole a length of 15 ft. below the lead. Such an extraordinary length of trace and snood is quite unnecessary; but, as it is the custom in these parts, it is simply absurd to argue the contrary, as many old hands can never be persuaded that any improvement may be made in the form or arrangement of tackle or gear to which they have been accustomed from their early years. Having been used to fish more to the eastward, I had fixed my own gear with shorter snoodings, namely a 9 ft. sid-strap, with 3 ft. of snood and three hooks, which is certainly long enough in all reason, making 12 ft., but in fishing alongshore I never use more than 5 ft. Our bait was Pilchards, which Hannibal prepared by scaling them carefully, to avoid breaking the skin, splitting them in two from head to tail, dissecting out the backbone, and then cutting them up diagonally into pieces nearly three-quarters of an inch wide, so that each side made about seven or eight baits. The hook is baited by passing the point through the fleshy side at the blue end of the bait, and then forcing it through the silvery side.

The baits are now cast clear of the boat, the lead being thrown into the water away from them; for if dropped on the snood, as I have seen done by many unthinking persons who have only been accustomed to chopstick lines, a foul is the natural result. All four lines are now out, and are trimmed by sounding the bottom, and then raising the lead about a yard clear of the ground, if there be any tide running; but if not, just sufficiently to keep the hooks from touching, as they are more visible to the fish than if allowed to fall on the ground, where the bait is likely to be taken off by Crabs or Star-fish.

Directly we had put out our second lines we tried our first, and feeling fish, we both commenced hauling, and took a pair of Whiting. Having readjusted the bait, we turned to tend our

lines on the other side of the boat, first carefully putting out those which we had just hauled in. The lines on the other side we also found loaded; and as the Whiting were now evidently well on the feed, we had no occasion to stop to feel them, but dragged away as a matter of course, first on one side, then on the other, until the boxes began to make a very respectable show of fish. Having taken four Mackerel on our way out, we cut up a couple of them for bait, as the skin is much tougher than the Pilchard, and the hooks are consequently not so often robbed.

After we had continued fishing some time, rather a lull occurred in our sport, and I determined to put out a drift-line for Pollack, which are occasionally taken of great size on the Whiting-ground. Desiring Hannibal, therefore, to split a Gurnard in two (of which fish we had taken six or eight), I took one side, and, hooking it through one end with a mediumsized Cod-hook, cast it overboard, paying out about twenty-five fathoms. I attached to the bight of the line a small tin bailer I happened to have on board, so that my attention would be attracted if a fish should seize the bait whilst I was occupied with my Whiting lines.

I had again been hauling Whiting for some minutes when suddenly the tin bailer struck the gunwale and bounded overboard; and on taking hold of the line I found I had hooked a fine fish, which bore down hard, so that I could not venture to haul on him but with care and caution, for the strength of a large Pollack is very great when he chooses to exert it. I brought him steadily upwards some distance, when he started off again, and required some little amount of coaxing before I could get him alongside; but Hannibal, standing ready with the gaff, at length hooked him under the jowl, and lifted him on board. He was a famous Pollack, weighing fully twelve pounds, but they are sometimes taken of as much as eighteen.

I put out also a drift-line, having a small Mackerel hook baited with the ordinary last or slip of skin cut from the tail of that fish, and with this took a Scoot-the West-country appellation of the Long-Nose or Gar-fish. This as well as the four Mackerel are cut up as supplementary bait for the