THE FISH OF BOUILLABAISSE 



to a considerable depth, they are more frequent where 

 the plantations are greater, as in the neighbourhood of 

 Marseilles and Toulon, where the depth which suits 

 them is maintained for great distances. They go thirty, 

 sixty, a hundred feet down, seldom more. These 

 favoured places are covered by vast bushy prairies, 

 in which, under cover of the closely packed vegetation, 

 among the leaves, the particular kinds of fish which 

 frequent them increase and multiply to their hearts' 

 content. In such places they are very numerous and 

 are most easily caught. The fisherman has only to 

 take them; the assortment is made for him, all ready 

 for sale, and he has no reason to make any change in it. 



The fish are caught in several different ways; 

 ordinary lines, ground line nets, put out in the evening 

 and taken up in the morning, are both used. The 

 gear principally chosen, the use of which demands 

 consummate skill, is a drag net, a trawl attached in a 

 peculiar way to a rod. In the local patois it is called 

 11 gangui ". It consists of a cylindrical net, measuring 

 about twelve feet long and from six to nine feet in 

 width, of which the opening, supported on a frame- 

 work of iron bent in a semi-circle, is fitted with two 

 wings held apart by a rod placed transversely. Two 

 cables are fastened, one to each end of the rod, and 

 these are spliced so as to form one main cable which 

 goes right up to the fishing boat and there is made 

 secure. The fisherman, with a sailor to help him, 

 casts his net until it touches the bottom, and then 

 sets sail. The wind drags it along the field of grass- 

 wrack. Everywhere it touches, the majority of the 

 creatures which happen to be there are encircled by 

 the wings and finally brought into the net. When 

 sufficient time has elapsed, the fisherman has only to 

 pull up his net to find at its bottom, in the required 

 proportions, the assortment he was looking for. 



On several occasions in different summers, I have 

 taken part in this operation at Marseilles. Today it 

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