136 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — SCOMBRID.E. 



the net fastened to one end, is tied, at the other, 

 to a post or rock, on the shore. The boat is then 

 rowed to the extremity of the rope, when a pole, 

 fixed there, and leaded heavily at the bottom, is 

 thrown overboard. The rowers from this place 

 make as nearly as possible a semicircle, two men 

 continually and regularly putting the net into the 

 water. When they come to the other end of the 

 net, where there is another leaded pole, they 

 throw that overboard. Another coil of rope, 

 similar to the first, is, by degrees, thrown into 

 the water, as the boatmen make for the shore. 

 The crew now land, and with the assistance of 

 persons stationed there, haul in each end of the 

 net till they come to the two poles. The boat 

 is then again pushed off towards the centre of 

 the net, in order to prevent the more vigorous 

 fish from leaping over the corks. By these means 

 three or four hundred fish are often caught at 

 one haul."* 



Mr. Couch has described a variation in the use 

 of this net, by which, in deep water, it is cast 

 around a shoal of Mackerel, so as to inclose it, 

 as if with a circular wall : then the bottom being 

 drawn together, it forms a deep and wide bag, 

 out of which the fishes are dipped into the boats. 

 The former mode is, however, the less expensive 

 of the two. 



The boats employed in the drift-fishing are 

 carefully built, combining security with speed in 

 a degree, perhaps, not surpassed b}^ those of any 

 other of our fisheries. They are usually about 

 thirty feet in the keel, with great depth of waist, 

 and breadth of beam ; built of oak or ash timber, 



* Bingley's Animal Biography, iii. 261. 



