The morning call., 1892-07-09
KILLING A SUNFISH.
An Incident of an Official Visit to the
Irish Fishing Grounds.
London Daily News.

An Incident of an Official Visit to the
Irish Fishing Grounds.
London Daily News
lively account of the killing of a bask-
Ing shark, otherwise the sunfish, is given in
the Rev. w. S. Green's account of his
ofncial survey of the Westof Ireland fishing
grounds. The sunfsh fishing has died out
IN ireland; but Mr. Holloran. liking" of
lnnishark, had assured the Inspector that
the hsh 1requented the coast as formerly
Sir ID. Gore-Booth, who had expe
rience of whaling in the Arctic seas.
offered to bring his harpooner and
see what could be done with modern
methods; the difficulty in this fishing
being the long time it took. under ordinary
circumstance, to kill these fish. Michael
Holloran had been great harpooner in his
day and was one of the crew when the last
sunfsh was killed. IS years ago, and five
men lost their lives over 1t. lie was left at
Bofin with the whaling-gun and Sir Ii.
GOre-BOoth. who tells what happened after
prolonged scanning of the horizon from
the top Of lnnshark. 'We heard yell
and saw three or four girls running down
to the cliff. A minute afterward | saw q
man, John Cloonane, making tracks toward
us as If he had mad bull after him. The
king started down hill best pace at the first
yell. with the simple remark, "A fish,
The moment we got to the cliff | saw my
hiot Idpluiy LOWaTU US,
showing his two ms. at times part of his
back. We scrambled down the rocks. ac-
c0mpanled by John ClOonane, who. breath
less, had caught Us up. and tumbed into
the BOAT. We quickly bent on the line to
the foregoer. clapped the harpoon into the
gun. while the foHr oars urged the boat at
top speed to meet the fish. He turned back
toward the pier, and the men had to force
the boat to her highest speed to catch him.
The king brought me up very neatly.
hn fCh In d
the boat He was travelling so
fast L made up my mind to risk
the first chance, so when he turned nearly
broadside took well ahead of the back fin
and let him have ii. Bang went the gun,
and l never saw fish cut such caper The
harDoon. hitting little low and well for
ward, knocked him on his SIDE toward the
boat; he then went forward few feet,
turned short round parallel 10 the boat,
showing himself right over water until he
was abeam of us, when he turned again and
came straight for the boat, Owed under 1t
and rolled asterD. He then appeared for a
moment right ahead. Our foregoer is II
fathoms, and up to this there was no strain
on the boat. Seeing our lorrgoer lead right
ahead, took turn round the bollard- he cad,
and few seconds afterward the strain
came on the boat. when yelled out: "A fall!
A fallp
''rhe fast flag was hoisted, and with the
assistance of two other boats we lowed him
to BoftiG. where we arrived at about $50
p. NJ. lie took very little line. not more than
10 or IL fathoms, including the foregoer
but the water was shoal. l looked ct my
watch when he turned up, and it was Gas,
so / think we must have beeu between 80
to 10 minutes killing him. Shark people say
they never saw fish killed SO rapidly
before. Our crew consisted of shark men
selected by the king. Their names are
Michael HoilOIsn. the King John Hol-
loran, Michael Lacy, Martin King and
(l0OnanP. 1nfnpd n
fish was a male aud measured % feet nch
We got another fish on Thursday, at about
IL 80 A. ~, close 10 that rock at the entrance
OF the harbOr. He gave us much better
sport, running right into the barracks when
fastened. and then went out nearly mile"
The oil of these two fish, with some of that
from Holloran's fish. was sold at Glasgow
for about Els.