DiaFT-NET FISHING. 103 



be sufficient, as unless the whole back of the nets be 

 well corked, the lengths between the buoys are liable 

 to sink in the centre by their own weight if the strain 

 at the end of the fleet of nets is not great enough to 

 keep them well extended, and so only those parts 

 remain at the surface which are directly supported by 

 the bowls. This is not of so much consequence when 

 the fish are swimming at some depth, as the shoals are 

 then more dispersed, and it is difficult to say how deep 

 they may be ; but when they are swimming high and 

 playing at the top it will not do to give them a chance 

 of passing over any part of the nets. 



The bowls are distributed at regular distances along 

 the whole train of nets, each net having one of these 

 buoys to support it; and certain divisions of the train 

 are distinguished by bowls of different colours. The 

 first net is marked by a small white bowl called the 

 " puppy," and at the end of four nets is a dan or buoy 

 with a staff or pole bearing a small flag. The rest of 

 the nets are marked in four divisions ; at the first 

 quarter from the pole is a bowl painted one quarter red 

 and three quarters white ; the next is half red and half 

 white, and at the commencement of the last division 

 the bowl is three quarters red and one quarter white. 

 The intermediate bowls are all black. The whole fleet 

 or train of nets is made fast to the vessel by a warp of 

 three and a half or four inch rope to which all the nets 

 are fastened by small ropes called " seizings," two to 

 each, and long enough to allow the warp to hang down 

 at their foot. The object of having this warp is to 

 facilitate the hauling in of the nets, to take off the 

 direct strain from them when this is being done, and to 

 prevent any of them being lost in case of their being 

 cut by accident. Drift-nets being used almost entirely 



