MACKERELS. 135 



the whole coast of Suflblk was estimated at 

 £14,000. In 18^3, the number of Mackerel 

 taken at Yarmouth was computed at 1,420,000. 



The capital employed in the Devon and Corn- 

 wall fishery was, some years ago, estimated at 

 £200,000. 



Two principal modes of net-fishing are em- 

 ployed for the capture of the Mackerel. The 

 first is by drift-nets. A number of nets, twenty 

 feet wide and twenty fathoms long, are attached 

 by one side, in succession, to a stout rope, called 

 the drift-rope, which is well corked. The boat 

 being at the distance of some leagues from 

 shore, throws overboard the end of the rope, to 

 which is affixed a large buoy. She is then put 

 before the wind, and as the rope runs out over 

 the stern, the successive nets are carried over- 

 board with it, and hang down perpendicularly like 

 a long wall, to the depth of twenty feet from the 

 floating rope. When all is run out, the rope is 

 shifted from the stern to the bows, the sails are 

 taken in, and the boat rides by the rope instead 

 of her cable, which is thus kept taut, and in 

 the line of the wind. The meslies of the nets are 

 made sufficiently large to admit the head of the 

 Mackerel, but no more ; so that the fish, swimming 

 against the long wall of nets, are caught by the gill- 

 covers and prevented from advancing or retiring. 



After remaining out, commonly, all night, the 

 nets are hauled in by means of a capstan ; each 

 net is taken off in turn and its produce secured. 

 A single haul has been known to yield fish of 

 the value of nearly £70. 



The second mode is by \he ground-seine^^ "A coiJ 

 of rope, about two hundred fathoms in length, with 



