Year: 1861

In the Atlantic Monthly, for February, q
writer who has been on one of the frequent ex-
cursions to the & hing banks, gives society the
benefit Of his experience in an article entitled
Scuppaug," which is the aboriginal name oi
the fan known in Gotham as porgy." Here
Is the description of the most exciting moment
OF fishing excursion


Notwithstanding the storm of yesterday,
from which the discontended foreboded a STAN
pede Of the fish to deeper waters, porgies to an
extraordinary amount were soon heaped on the
decks, at the feet of each fisherman, the more
careful of whom put them into baskets or bar
rels. But In general they were threwn care
lessly on the deck, with a string passed through
their gills to keep them from strsying out OF
thsir proper lots. When these bright fishes
are lying on the deck, II is curious to watch
them flushing and gasping there, with that
singular, dubious expression of mouth peculiar
TO fishes out of water, as if more struck by the
absence OF that element than by their novel
position among the accessories of dry life.
Now and then black fish was hauled in-an
event greeted with a loud cheer from all parts
Of the boat. When a very large one was an
nounced. People came rushing from all quar-
ters to see it; but the greatest tribute to
largeness IL a fish that remember anywhere
to have seen was the altered expression on the
face of baby some six months old, whose fea-
lures settled permanently down into the col
lapse OF imbecility from the moment Of the ar
rival on the upper deck of black fish two feet
long.


By this time the scene on the for ecastle was
quite picture Of the Dutch school. Grouped
everywhere among the fish and fishers were
matronly women and unbonnetted damsels,
most Of them with handkerchiefs tied upon
their heads; for they had got over their sea-
sickness now, and were coming by twos and
threes from the saloon, to breathe little
fresh air, and look at the sport. One pretty,
Jewish looking girl, wrapped in a red and
white shawl, was sitting on the big anchor near
the bows, and three or four others looking
quite picturesque, as they reclined on the
heavy coils of the great cable. All along the
bulwarks, on both sides Of the boat, men and
boys were crOWding upon each other, casting
out and hauling in their lines with unfagging
spirit Slim city children blistered whole
somely as to their legs, from knee to ankle, by
the sun and the salt air, harnesssd themselves
TO little heaps of fish, and were driven about
the upper deck in various fashionable styles,
including four-in- hand and tandem, by other
sllm city children, whose lower extremities
had been treated in the same beneficial man
ner by the same eminent physicians.


The musicians had laid away their corno-
peans and other cunningly twisted horns upon
the broad disc of the big drum, in a dark al
cove between decks, and were fishing savsgely
IN German and broken English, according to
the nationality with which their affairs hap
pened to get entangled. Even the colored cItef
de cuisine, muscular mulatto. with beard
OF rash disposition, coming out on wrong
parts of his face in little eruptive pustules Of
black wool, sported his lines out of the galley
air-holes; and his porgies were simmering in
the pan while their memories were yet green
IN the submarine parishes from which they
came. Have these finny creatures their full
revenge upon fisher mankind, when q smack
sinks foundered into the swallowing deep?
Do the midnight jewellers in the sea-caverns
call out in broad Scuppaug to the attendant
mermaid for "hslf-dozen large-sized jolter-
heads on the half monkey jacket 30


To thesequeries hope that Poeticaf Justice,
if still living, will forward a reply at her earli-
est convenience. Porgy now began to pervade
the air with an astringent perfume of the sea;
none of your Fulton market smells of stagna-
ting fish, but a clean, wholesome, coraline odor,
such as We may imagine supplied to the peris
beneath the dark sea" by the scaly fellow in
the toilet line down there, who are likely to
keep il for sale in conch shells-quarts and
pints. POrgy prevailed to that extent, in fact,
that il came to be talked of by and by, as a
circulating medium; and q hard listed me-
chanic ayerred his intention Of compensating
his landlady for his board with porgy for the
week that was passing away.