PILCHARD. 173 



approaches ; for Pilchards enter the nets better at these sea- 

 sons. A rope from one end of the string is fastened over 

 the quarter of the boat, and the nets are left to float with 

 the tide, no sails being set, except rarely in very calm weather, 

 to prevent the nets being folded together. Within a few 

 years an improvement has been made, derived, it would 

 appear, from the practice of the herring-fishers, by which 

 more fish have been taken, and much of the hazard obviated 

 to which the nets were exposed by ships passing over them. 

 It consists in diminishing the number and size of the corks 

 along the head-line, and in fixing cords at proper distances, 

 each of which has attached to it a stout buoy. These cords 

 are from two to two and a half fathoms long, and conse- 

 quently allow the upper edge of the nets to sink to that 

 depth below the surface ; but even now it is found that the 

 fish are principally caught in the lower part of the net. 



The number of fish taken by a drift-boat in a night's 

 fishing varies exceedingly : from five to ten thousand is con- 

 sidered moderate ; it often amounts to twenty thousand. 

 For the season's fishing, about one hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand fish would be deemed favourable. 



For the sean-fishing, three boats are provided, of which 

 two are about forty feet long, and ten wide at the beam, 

 with flat timbers and a sharp bow. The first is termed the 

 sean-boat, and is furnished with a sean two hundred and 

 twenty fathoms in length, and twelve fathoms deep, which is 

 buoyed along the head-rope with corks, and weighed down 

 with leads. The second boat is called the volyer, a term 

 supposed to be a corruption of the word, follower. This 

 boat has a sean from one hundred to one hundred and 

 twenty fathoms in length, and eighteen fathoms deep at its 

 deepest part, and is termed the tuck-sean : it differs from 

 the former, called the stop-scan, as well in shape as in 

 dimensions, the middle being formed into a hollow or bunt. 



