130 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



or less regular fishery for mackerel from June to 

 November, and they are found at times in Donegal Bay 

 during the same period. 



Pilchard fishing by drift-nets begins on the Cornish 

 coast in July, and is carried on till December ; but 

 during the later months the fish come near the shore, 

 within reach of the scans •, and the drift-boats are for- 

 bidden by law to fish within half a mile of where those 

 nets are being used. Pilchards may be regarded as 

 essentially west-country fish, as the great fishery for 

 them is on the coast of Cornwall, and they are to be 

 found in that neighbourhood throughout the year. 

 They are also fished for to some extent on the south 

 coast of Devon, and are occasionally met with farther 

 up Channel, and even in the North Sea. In the south 

 and south-west of Ireland they are so frequently abun- 

 dant that it may be hoped the attempts lately made to 

 work for them systematically will lead to the establish- 

 ment of a regular fishery. 



The distance from the land and the direction in which 

 the pilchards are first met with on the Cornish coast 

 appear to vary to a considerable extent ; but we shall 

 perhaps not be far wrong in saying that few pilchards 

 are taken during the season farther at sea than 10 or 

 12 miles, and that they are found south rather than 

 west of the Land's End. On the south coast some of the 

 shoals soon come in near the land, and the fish are 

 taken at the same time by both drift-nets and scans. 

 They make an early appearance also on the Irish coast, 

 whence it is believed they come in October and Novem- 

 ber to the north shore of Cornwall. It is during those 

 months that the important sean-fishery at St. Ives is 

 expected to take place ; but the pilchard is capricious in 

 its movements, and these fish sometimes pass along the 



