Sentence:  ... we set out for the cannery. There, men with spiked poles would swarm into the scow, hook each fish under the gills. The creatures would hurtle through the air like silver streaks, landing into the cannery chutes with <WSD>slithery</WSD> thumps, and pass on to the ripping knives 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  That slithers; that moves like a snake.