168 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



whole length of this row of stakes a train of netting 

 is fixed, reaching from the top of the stakes to the 

 ground, old herring-nets being generally used for this 

 purpose, as their meshes are too small to catch the 

 mackerel, and therefore do very well to turn them. A 

 wall or barrier is thus made running at a right angle 

 from the shore. At the lower end of this barrier is 

 the pound (b), a circular enclosure usually about 200 

 yards in circumference, and constructed in precisely 

 the same manner as the barrier. The entrance to the 

 pound is on the land side, and about 35 feet wide ; 

 and the barrier terminates near the middle of, and 

 rather within, the opening, leaving a passage 15 feet 

 wide on one side and 20 feet on the other ; the latter 

 is made on that side of the barrier which the mackerel 

 are most likely to strike in the course of their move- 

 ments along the shore. 



The manner in which the kettle-net works is ob- 

 viously very simple. At the latter part of the mackerel 

 season the fish often come close inshore with the rising 

 tide, and as the stakes are rarely covered by the water 

 the mackerel cannot pass the barrier ; and being unable 

 to go round it on the land side their course is turned 

 outwards until they arrive at the other end, where they 

 apparently find themselves in open water, but are 

 really within the pound. Having once entered this 

 enclosure, there they are likely to remain, unless they 

 can escape over the top during the short time any part 

 of it may chance to be covered ; but as the tide falls the 

 top of the pound shows more and more above water ; 

 and the enclosed fish seek the deej^est part of their 

 prison, where they are ultimately collected in what 

 little water may be left when the tide has finished 

 ebbing. The fishermen then have nothing to do but 



