THE SEA FISHERIES 287 



attached to a number of stakes set upright in the sand to 

 form a trap with a small opening towards the sea which 

 the fish enter on the incoming tide. When the tide recedes 

 the fish are left high and dry on the sand. 



In many parts of the world the ancient cast net is still 

 in use. The net is so weighted that a dexterous throw 

 from the shoulder will make it open out and fall flat on the 

 water — a circular disc of netting whose weighted circum- 

 ference carries it quickly to the bottom with any fish over 

 which it may have fallen. By pulling carefully on a rope 

 the weighted edges can be drawn slowly together over the 

 bottom so that the fish is completely ensnared in the net. 

 Along the Egyptian coast fishermen may be seen using 

 these cast nets for grey mullet which they stalk in the 

 shallow water. 



Very often in the devising of nets advantage is taken of 

 some peculiarity in the habits of a fish, such as the drift nets 

 which are used for catching the fast swimming shoals of 

 herring or mackerel. The grey mullet is a great jumper 

 and will leap out of the water when it meets an obstruction. 

 If a shoal of grey mullet be surrounded by a seine great 

 numbers may be seen making their escape by leaping over 

 the walls of netting. In the eastern Mediterranean a 

 net is used which besides presenting a vertical wall of 

 netting, has netting lying horizontally on the surface 

 supported on floating bamboos. This net is shot off the 

 stern of a boat, which is rowed in a complete circle so that 

 a shoal of fish may be completely surrounded by a hanging 

 curtain of netting (Plate 10 1). The mullet immediately 

 jump ; but, instead of leaping over the wall as they 

 intended, they find themselves flapping and splashing on 

 the horizontal floating net on the outside. The fishermen 

 row round and pick them up as they jump to their fate. 



There is a net used by the Japanese which requires 



