156 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



IV.— SEAN-FISHING. 



Antiquity of — Classification of seans — General tlescription of — PilcharJ- 

 seaning — Herring-seaning or " trawling " in Scotland — Ground-seau — 

 Kinds of fisli caught by the sean. 



The sweep-net, commonly known in this country as 

 the sean or seine, is one of the oldest implements of 

 fishing of which there is any record ; and may be recog- 

 nized under various names from almost the earliest 

 times to the present day. Mr. Couch, in his notice of 

 the thunny fishery,^ enters at some length into the his- 

 tory of this net, and thus concludes his remarks on the 

 probable antiquity of its use in this country : — " As we 

 have seen that the Phoenicians in the earliest ages were 

 accustomed to use the sean, and it is known that they 

 traded to the county of Cornwall before the days of 

 Moses, it is a reasonable guess that this sort of net was 

 introduced among our ancestors by that people." 



Whatever may have been the date of its introduction 

 here, whether before or after the time of Moses, it 

 appears to have always retained the same essential cha- 

 racter ; and the principal alteration either in its con- 

 struction or in the manner in which it is worked 

 probably consists only in the addition of a ^Docket to 

 the middle or bunt, and perhaps in using one net for 

 the purpose of enclosing the fish, as is the practice at 

 St. Ives, and another for completing the capture and 

 removing them from the water. These points will be 

 noticed in the course of our description of the nets. 



Seans may be divided into three classes, namely, the 



^ Fishes of the British Islands, vol. ii., pp. 91-94, 



