43.— FISH NETS: SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND THE 

 APPLICATION OF THE VARIOUS FORMS IN AMERICAN FISHERIES. 



BY C. H. AUGUR, 



Of the American Net and Twine Company. 



We know of ten distinct devices for the capture of free-swimming- fish — the spear, 

 the snare, the hook, the dip net, the cast net, the seine, the pound, the gill net, the 

 trammel net, the beam trawl. We think that any appliance called by any other name 

 whatever will be found to embody the basic principle of one of these ten. 



When, and in what order, and by what kind of fishermen these various methods 

 were first conceived and brought into use we do not know. If we would trace their 

 development from the beginning we must draw upon our imagination, for they are old 

 devices; so old that history affords but little information as to their first conception. 

 We know that certain birds and animals are expert fish -catchers, and we may imagine 

 that the first fisherman imitated the salmon -catching bear, taking his piscatorial food 

 from the water without other implements than those provided by nature in his strong- 

 arms and nimble fingers. 



But it is an accepted fact that no fisherman was ever quite satisfied with his achieve- 

 ments, and we may assume that the primitive fish -catcher soon began to look with 

 covetous eyes on the gamier fish; that he was sorely exasperated to see the finest 

 specimens elude his grasp and swim with tantalizing dignity into the depths beyond 

 his reach. Possibly it was one of these earliest fishermen who originally told how 

 "the biggest fish got away," and it may have been the significant exchange of glances 

 among his aboriginal cronies which fired him with determination to capture that 

 biggest fish by fair means or foul iu order to maintain his reputation for veracity. 



What sort of an implement would be devised under such circumstances ? Probably 

 a spear; and it is not unlikely that for a long period of time after the introduction of 

 this device our pioneer fishermen were to be seen furtively stealing about the banks 

 of streams and the shores of the sea and lakes, practicing the "gentle art" by jabbing 

 these cruel instruments into the flesh of their victims, or, when not thus engaged, 

 devising improvements in the shape, style, and quality of their tackle — employing their 

 time very much as fishermen do in the nineteenth century. 



The snare has been referred to, not because it is now of any importance, but 

 because it is a means of taking fish different from any other. It is one of the crude 

 devices which would naturally suggest itself to a man without implements of any kind 

 who should see a fine old fish lying between the rocks just beyond his reach. The 

 nearest sapling would supply him with a pole, some twisted grass or bark fiber with 

 cord to form a loop, careful adjustment of this to the tapering end of the pole, a little 



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