DRIFT-NET FISHINa. 101 



3^ards long and so many meshes deep, as the case may 

 be. Each piece is divided into two nets 30 yards 

 long. When a net is prepared for use it is mounted 

 or fastened to a small line only 18 or 20 yards 

 long, that length of line being appropriated to tlie 

 30 yards of net, so that the " lint " or netting is set 

 slack, and gives way a little when the fish strike it, and 

 from its flexibility holds the fish better than would be 

 the case if the net were fully stretched. The ends of 

 the net are called the " heads," the upper edge of the 

 length the " back," and the lower one the " foot," or 

 sometimes the " sole." The heads are roped as well as 

 the back, but the foot is usually left free, so that the 

 net is less likely to hitch in anything at the bottom 

 when used in rather shoal water or near the ground. 

 The back of the net is fastened at intervals of a few 

 inches by very short lines termed " norsals " or 

 " nossles " to the cork-rope, a small double rope en- 

 closing at various distances pieces of cork as floats to 

 keep that part of the net uppermost. The ijinnber of 

 such nets used by each vessel depends very much on 

 her size, and ranges from 80 to 130. They are fastened 

 together end to end, and, thus united, form what is 

 called a " train, fleet, or drift of nets," often extending 

 to a length of more than a mile and a quarter. The 

 mesh is about an inch and a quarter square, equiva- 

 lent to thirty or thirty-two meshes to the yard,^ 



^ Tlie size of the mesh, or the number of meshes to a yard, which is the 

 fairest way of judging of the average dimensions, is easily ascertained hy a 

 simple method of counting in use among fishermen: the ends of four or five 

 rows of meshes are brought together in the hand and the net stretched tight ; 

 the result is transverse parallel rows of knots, the spaces between the rows being 

 the length of one of the four sides of the square or diamond, and which is 

 taken as the size of the mesh ; thus, an inch mesh is one whose four sides are 

 each an inch long, and not, as was sometimes supposed, a mesh an inch long- 

 between opposite knots when it is pulled straight. Counting the rows of knots 

 therefore within a certain fixed length gives the average size of the meshes. 

 When the inch mesh, or thirty-six to a yard, was the minimum size allowed 



