MEASUREMENT AND EXPORT OF PILCHARDS. 165 



other signal iu each hajid, and by preconcerted move- 

 ments can acciu'ately guide the boats below. When 

 ''■ iish " are passing, the inhabitants rush about shouting, 

 "Hev'ah, hevah, hev'ah!" 



The seiners have various difficulties to encounter 

 when trying to enclose a shoal of pilchards, and it is 

 more common to miss than to have a successful " shoot." 

 The tide has to be carefully considered, for it runs with 

 great force off all the headlands, and often carries a seine 

 on to a rock and splits it. After a shoal is fairly en- 

 closed and the seine moored, there are still many dangers 

 and perils ; for instance, the Eashleigh seine at Port 

 Gavern, near Tintagel, enclosed a fine shoal, but next 

 day a ground sea came on which lifted the foot-ropes, 

 and enabled the fish to escape. 



The fish being duly secured, the next thing is to take 

 them ashore. This is accomplished by means of the 

 " tuck net," which is passed inside the main seine. The 

 ends of the tuck net are then draT\ai together, and the 

 fish are lifted in the bunt from the bottom. 



The following is the correct mode of measm-ing 

 pilchards : — A hogshead is 3761bs. gross, and about 

 840lbs. nett. Summer fish ran 3,000 to 3,600 per 

 hogshead ; winter fish, 2,400 to 2,800 per hogshead. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Howard Fox, of Fal- 

 mouth, I have received the following returns, giving 

 the shipments from Penzance and Falmouth of pil- 

 chards in 1879 :— To Genoa, 7,855^ hgds. ; Leghorn, 

 l,157i hgds.; Naples, 2,698i hgds.; Venice, 2261 hgds. 

 As nearly all the Cornish pilchards go to Koman Catholic 

 countries the fishermen have a favourite toast, " The 

 Pope and Pilchards." 



