164 PILCHARD NETS. 



ing to size ; all under eight inches in length being 

 usually excluded and packed separately in other casks to 

 be sold as small fish, chiefly for home consumption. The 

 oil expressed from the pilchards is used for making 

 paints." 



Pilchards are caught by driving nets and seines. 

 Boats, with nets complete, cost a considerable amount. 

 They are manned by from three to eight men. Each 

 boat has from fifteen to thirty nets. 



As pilchards only enter the nets during twilight, un- 

 less they are passing in large " schools," when they often 

 carry the nets away bodily, the general custom is for the 

 boats to start from home in time to reach their fishing- 

 ground about sunset, when they set their nets, and haul 

 them in in about two hours, and unless they are full of 

 fish do not set them again till dawn. In the interval 

 they sail about to discover the whereabouts of "fish," 

 which they do by knocking the bottom of the boat with 

 a hammer, or stamping on it, the concussion arising 

 therefrom causing any pilchards in the neighbourhood 

 to jump and discover themselves by " briming," that is 

 to say, causing a brilliant phosphorescent appearance in 

 the water, when the nets will again be cast overboard. 

 As many as 80,000 pilchards have been captured by a 

 single beat in one night, and 40,000, though a very good^ 

 is not an uncommon catch at certain seasons. The fish 

 when landed are sold fresh, at prices ranging from Is. 3d. 

 to 2s. 3d. per 126. 



The seine fishery commences about the end of July. 

 The more general and successful method of enclosing 

 fish is for the seine boats to receive their signals from a 

 man called a " huer," stationed on the top of the nearest 

 cliff, who, from this vantage ground, can have a much 

 clearer sight of the fish. The huer has a furze bush or 



