188 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



pilchards, and herrings, line-fishing, a little trawling, 

 and general crab and lobster fishing. Oyster dredging 

 employs a good many people at Falmouth, but there is 

 not much work of this kind done on the other parts of the 

 coast. The two principal fishing stations are Penzance, 

 or Mount's Bay, as it might be more properly described, 

 and St. Ives, which although, strictly speaking, coming 

 within the port of Hayle, has the privilege of carrying 

 the distinctive letters " S. S." on its boats. These two 

 stations possess a fleet of fishing boats whose good quali- 

 ties have long made them famous; and the enterprise and 

 daring of their hardy crews have made Cornish fisher- 

 men respected wherever they have gone. St. Ives is 

 especially famous for the extent of its sean - fishery, 

 carried on more or less from September to November 

 for pilchards ; and this essentially Cornish fish then 

 occupies the attention of everyone in the place. Under 

 the head of " Seaning" a short and general account has 

 been given of the manner in which this fishery is con- 

 ducted, and we will now speak of it more in detail, and 

 notice the regulations by which the numerous scans are 

 worked within the limited space available for them. 

 These regulations are for the most part embodied in a 

 local Act of Parliament ;^ and as the working of the 

 Act has met with general approval from those who are 

 immediately affected by it, no change has been made, 

 and it is not included among the numerous enactments 

 repealed by the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868. 



The pilchards strike the northern coast of Cornwall 

 to the eastward of St. Ives, and the fishermen at New- 

 quay and St. Agnes sometimes have a chance of using 

 their scans ; but the fish do not generally come in any 

 numbers close to the land on tlieir passage westward 



' 4 S: f) Vict., c. 57. 



