100 deep-sea fishing. 



Drift-nets. 



For a description of drift-nets, and the mode of 

 working them on a large scale, we cannot do better 

 than give some account of the method by which the 

 Yarmouth herring fishery has long been carried on. 

 Drift-fishing, or " driving," as it is generally called, is 

 there worked with fine decked boats, larger in every 

 way than on other parts of the coast, and the fishermen 

 consequently can venture fartlier to sea and run the 

 chance of worse weather than most of the smaller 

 fishing boats are capable of with a due regard to 

 security. 



The nets used for herring driving are made either of 

 cotton or hemp — " twine," as the latter is called ; some 

 fisliermen preferring the one material, some the other, 

 and it is not unusual for the two kinds to be placed 

 alternately in the same train of nets. Cotton nets are 

 finer in the line and more flexible than those of twine, 

 and they are generally believed to be more effective 

 from these qualities. Machinery of a very beautiful 

 and ingenious character is employed in making them, 

 and large supplies are turned out from the factories at 

 Bridport and many other places. Cotton nets when 

 new are first saturated with linseed oil, and then boiled 

 for two or three days in bai'k liquor, a preparation now 

 consisting principally of catechu, which for the preser- 

 vation of nets has practically superseded the oak-bark 

 formerly used. In some cases they are dressed with 

 coal-tar instead of being barked. These nets come 

 from tbe factory in " pieces " GO yards long and 9 or 

 10 yards deep, the depth of the net containing two 

 hundred meshes ; and it is the custom of the fishermen, 

 when speaking of the size of a net, to say it is so many 



