TRAMMEL OR SET NETS. 175 



and is perhaps more commonly employed by the fisher- 

 men at the Channel Islands and in the south-west of 

 England than elsewhere. We will take one of the 

 Cornish nets for description, as it will fairly represent 

 the principle on which they are all made. The trammel 

 is composed of three long nets^ placed side by side, and 

 fastened together at the back, foot, and ends. Each 

 outer net or "walling," as it is generally called, has 

 a depth of five meshes 10 inches square, and is 40 or 

 50 fathoms in length. These wallings are mounted so 

 that the meshes of both exactly correspond in position, 

 and a fish might pass through them as if they were 

 only a single net. The third net, however, is placed 

 between the other two, and has a mesh only two inches 

 square ; but it is twice as long and as deep as the outer 

 ones, the excess being gathered in at short intervals 

 along the edges where the three nets are united. The 

 result is a large quantity of slack netting through the 

 whole extent of the trammel. Thus prepared, it is set 

 in the usual manner in the direction of the tide, and 

 anchored and buoyed at each end, the back of the net 

 being corked, and the foot weighted as in the set-nets 

 previously described. 



The action of the trammel is peculiar. The outer 

 nets or wallings stand with their meshes fully open and 

 exactly opposite each other, with the small-meshed net 

 between them; and a fish, in trying to pass through 



^ The word Trammel comes from the low Latin trarnalhtm or tramela, which 

 is derived from tres maculce, i. e. three meshes ; whence also tramaglio, Ital. ; 

 and tremail, framail, Fr., more directly from ti'ois mailles with the same 

 signification as in the Latin. 



Du Cnnge, in his Glossary, says, "Tramallum, Tramela, Species retis ad 

 capiendos pisces. Gallis, Tremail (spelt Tramail in modern French), Italis, 

 Tramaglio, sic dicta, quod tribns maculis, vel triplice macularum ordine, quas 

 mailles nostri dicunt, confecta sit." 



It is a question, however, whether the trammel was first used for catching 

 birds or fishes ; it has long been employed for both purposes. 



