, gesticulating in a very remarkable manner, with a bush in
his hand; waving it to the right and the left, brandishing it over his
head, sweeping it past his feet--in short, apparently acting the part of
a maniac of the most dangerous character. It would add considerably to
the startling effect of this sight on the stranger, if he were told,
while beholding it, that the insane individual before him was paid for
flourishing the bush at the rate of a guinea a week. And if he,
thereupon, advanced a little to obtain a nearer view of the madman, and
then observed on the sea below (as he certainly might) a well-manned
boat, turning carefully to right and left exactly as the bush turned
right and left, his mystification would probably be complete, and the
right time would arrive to come to his rescue with a few charitable
explanatory words. He would then learn that the man with the bush was an
important agent in the Pilchard Fishery of Cornwall; that he had just
discovered a shoal of pilchards swimming towards the land; and that the
men in the boat were guided by his gesticulations alone, in securing the
fish on which they and all their countrymen on the coast depend for a
livelihood.

To begin, however, with the pilchards themselves, as forming one of the
staple commercial commodities of Cornwall. They may be, perhaps, best
described as bearing a very close resemblance to the herring, but as
being rather smaller in size and having larger scales. Where they come
from before they visit the Cornish coast--where those that escape the
fishermen go to when they quit it, is unknown; or, at best, only vaguely
conjectured. All that is certain about them is, that they are met with,
swimming past the Scilly Isles, as early as July (when they are caught
with a drift-net). They then advance inland in August, during which
month the principal, or "in-shore," fishing begins; visit different
parts of the coast until October or November; and after that disappear
until the next year. They may be sometimes caught off the south-west
part of Devonshire, and are occasionally to be met with near the
southernmost coast of Ireland; but beyond these two points they are
never seen on any other portion of the shores of Great Britain, either
before they approach Cornwall, or after they have left it.

The first sight from the cliffs of a shoal of pilchards advancing
towards the land, is not a little interesting. They produce on the sea
the appearance of t