NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF FISH NETS. 383 



below the surface and invisible, and that they were intermittent, passing at unex- 

 pected hours when the fishermen were telling' yarns or were asleep in their bunks ; and 

 from this observation the idea of the appliance which is known as the pound, or weir, 

 may have originated. There is a belief current among our fishermen that the pound 

 is of recent origin*, but it is said that the American Indian used such a device, con- 

 structed of poles and brush, before the advent of the white man, and if that is true 

 who can tell for how long a period this apparatus had then been employed. The 

 belief that an aperture could be made opening into the pound which would not also 

 be freely used by the fish as a means of exit, must have been founded upon ;i consid- 

 erable knowledge of the nature offish, and surely it was one of the distinctly original 

 ideas in the history of fishing methods. It, has been utilized in the construction of 

 innumerable minor nets, among which are included a great variety of fykes and pots, 

 although in the pot the idea of the funnel is applied in combination with the lure, and 

 not with the leader; that is, the fish are attracted to it by bait, not driven in by 

 obstructions to their natural progress. 



In the net we have referred to are found pretty effectual means for the capture 

 of all fish which swim near to the laud, either in the sea or in the rivers. For those 

 which inhabit waters of great depth, the gill net, quite distinct from all other nets, 

 \\as devised and brought into extensive use. In this net the fish is not surrounded 

 and dragged to the shore, nor lured by the use of bait, nor drawn from his course and 

 led into captivity; he is required merely to run his head blindly into the meshes, 

 which are composed of the finest twine or thread it is practicable to use in order that 

 they may be as nearly as possible invisible. 



A method differing from all the others referred to is found in the use of the trammel 

 net. Like the gill net, the trammel may be stationary or allowed to drift with the cur- 

 rent, but unlike the gill net it is so constructed as to catch fish varying greatly in size. 



The shore fisheries having thus been provided with most effective apparatus, and 

 the gill net devised for the high swimming ocean fish, there still remained for the 

 attention of the net fishermen those fish which inhabit the deep waters, but do not 

 rise far above the bottom. The beam trawl met this particular long-felt want. It is, 

 however, an apparatus more familiar to the fishermen of Europe than to us. There 

 the beam-trawl fisheries equal in importance those of any other method, while here 

 such experiments as have been made with them have proved unprofitable, and their 

 use in the commercial fisheries is so limited as to hardly warrant consideration. 



Now, if our attempt to account for the introduction of the various forms of fishing- 

 apparatus seems too fanciful, and does not accord with established facts, we are 

 anxious to be enlightened by any one who knows better. The interesting fact is that 

 all of the distinctive methods known at this time are of ancient origin; and it is a fact 

 scarcely less noteworthy that every one of the appliances referred to, except the snare 

 (and perhaps we should apologize for mentioning this device at all) is employed to some 

 extent in the commercial fisheries of -the United States even to this day. 



The principle of the spear is applied in the whale and sword-fish fisheries. The 

 spear in its simplest form is a common device successfully employed on freshwater 

 lakes in winter fishing through the ice, and in taking eels from the muddy beds of 

 the shallow creeks and harbors along the seacoast. 



The dip net in its original form yields profit to the Indian fishermen in certain 

 salmon rivers on the Pacific coast. The finest white-fish served at the hotels in 



