The tide,
too, was coming with that swift and silent swell observable when the
wind is gentle; the woody curves along the land were filling with the
flood, till it touched the green branches of the drooping trees; while
in the centre current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks
told to the experienced fisherman that salmon were abundant.
As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that winded to
the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net
on his back, while behind him came a girl, bearing a small harpoon with
which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. The
senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which overlooked the bay,
laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the
refreshing sea-breeze; and taking his harpoon from his attendant, sat
with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the flood, with his
ministering nymph behind him. We pushed our shallop to the shore, and
soon stood at their side.
"This is old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with his grand-daughter
Barbara," said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something of fear
in it; "he knows every creek and cavern and quicksand in Solway,--has
seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man; has heard him bark,
and at every bark has seen a ship sink; and he has seen, too, the Haunted
Ships in full sail; and, if all tales be true, he has sailed in them
himself: he's an awful person.
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