142 SCOMBERID.E. 



Hastings cleared 100/. by the fish caught in one night ; and 

 a large quantity of very fine Mackerel appeared in the Lon- 

 don market in the second week of the same month. They 

 were cried through the streets of London three for a shilling 

 on the 14th and 22nd of March 1834, and had then been 

 plentiful for a month. The boats engaged in fishing are 

 usually attended by other fast-sailing vessels, which are sent 

 away with the fish taken. From some situations, these ves- 

 sels sail away direct for the London market ; at others, they 

 make for the nearest point from which they can obtain land- 

 carriage for their fish. From Hastings, and other fishing 

 towns on the Sussex coast, the fish are brought to London by 

 vans, which travel up during the night. 



The most common mode of fishing for Mackerel, and the 

 way in which the greatest numbers are taken, is by drift-nets. 

 The drift-net is twenty feet deep, by one hundred and 

 twenty feet long ; well corked at the top, but without lead at 

 the bottom. They are made of small fine twine, which is 

 tanned of a reddish brown colour, to preserve it from the 

 action of the sea-water ; and it is thereby rendered much 

 more durable. The size of the mesh about two and a half 

 inches, or rather larger. Twelve, fifteen, and sometimes 

 eighteen of these nets are attached lengthways, by tying 

 along a thick rope, called the drift-rope, and at the ends of 

 each net, to each other. When arranged for depositing in 

 the sea, a large buoy attached to the end of the drift rope is 

 thrown overboard, the vessel is put before the wind, and, as 

 she sails along, the rope with the nets thus attached is passed 

 over the stern into the water till the whole of the nets are run 

 out. The net thus deposited hangs suspended in the water 

 perpendicularly twenty feet deep from the drift-rope, and ex- 

 tending from three quarters of a mile to a mile, or even a 

 mile and a half, depending on the number of nets belonging 

 to the party or company engaged in fishing together. When 



