clupeim:. 227 



coast towards Cornwall in the autumn, often pass quantities of pilchards in the 

 English Channel, especially off and beyond Portland. Couch observed that for 

 several years, in the early part of this century, the larger proportion of the shoals 

 consisted of such small fish that they passed through the meshes of the seines. 

 Mr. Wilcocks also met with similar sardine-sized pilchards in Guernsey. 



Means of capture. This is carried on by means of drift or driving nets which 

 can be employed over any depth of water, and in which the fish are meshed or 

 gilled. Bright nights are not so favourable for pilchard fishing as cloudy ones, but 

 in very dark nights the brimming is so bright that the nets look like a wall of fire 

 and deter the fish. In coast fishing they are shot as already observed (page 225) 

 and after sunset, between the shoals of pilchards and the deeper water into which 

 they retire at daylight after feeding. Seines or circle nets are also used near the 

 shore, the mesh of these latter being smaller, as f of an inch between knot and knot, 

 which is of this size in order to prevent their being able to mesh themselves, for 

 if a shoal were encircled and they contained gilled fish, they would soon die, and 

 such a weight of pilchards would be too heavy for the net and cause it to sink. 

 Seine nets are shot between sunrise and sunset, the smallest legal ones at St. Ives 

 being 160 fathoms along the cork rope with a depth of 8 fathoms at the centre or 

 bunt, and 6 at the end of the wings. Some are as long as 200 fathoms, the mesh 

 being f of an inch between knot and knot, or 18 to 20 rows to a foot. 18 feet of 

 netting are attached to each 11 feet of back rope and the same amount on each 

 ten feet of foot rope. A line of corks goes along the upper edge, and the foot 

 line is weighted with leads. 



The following regulation exists in the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, 31 and 32 Vict, 

 cap. 45, sect. 68 : 



" On the coast of Cornwall, except so much of the north coast as lies east of 

 Trevose Head, no person between the 25th of July and the 25th of November in 

 any year 



" ' (a) Shall, from sunrise to sunset, within the distance of two miles from the 

 coast, measured from low water-mark (whether in bays or not) use a drift 

 net or trawl net ; or (6) shall, within half a mile of any sea fishing-boat 

 stationed for seine fishing, anchor any sea-fishing or other boat (not being 

 a boat engaged in seine-fishing), or lay, set, or use any net, boulter, or 

 implement of sea-fishing (except for the purpose of seine-fishing).' 

 " Any person who acts in contravention of this section shall be liable, on 

 summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds." 



As there are only six stations (locally termed stems at St. Ives) where seining 

 can be carried on, and nearly 250 registered nets, they are arranged in groups, 

 each of which is worked so many times in accordance with its size. In this mode 

 of fishing, observes Couch, a whole shoal may be enclosed, and when the evening 

 has set in, and at low tide, the fish are removed. This is done by a small boat 

 passing inside the enclosure and laying its net or tuck seine round the inner side 

 of the large or stop seine so as to gradually contract the limits within which the 

 fish are and raise them towards the surface. When disturbed they dash 

 violently about, and care is necessary that they do not break out, while, to 

 prevent them passing from the tuck net into the stop seine, stones suspended 

 from ropes, termed minnies, are constantly kept plunging towards the only 

 aperture. The tuck net is raised so that the fish are brought to the surface, 

 from which they are removed into the boats with baskets by the fishermen, 

 who are in pairs on the gunwales of the boats (Couch). There is no necessity 

 to remove the whole of the fish that day, in fact a net containing these fish has 

 been kept a week, and a portion of its contents removed as required every 

 night. At St. Ives one end of the seine warp is left on shore and the net 

 rowed round the shoal. 



Huers, also termed Balkers, are employed for the purpose of keeping a look-out 

 from the cliffs along the shore for the schools of pilchards, similarly, as already 

 described, for observing the mackerel. They receive each about 3 a month and 

 one-hundredth part in kind of the fish taken by their respective companies. Fish 

 being seen the cry is raised " Hev-ah, hev-ah." And, about 1604, it was enacted 



15 * 



