FISHING STATIONS— ENra.ANI). 



219 



themselves to tlie home fislieries is comparatively small ; 

 btit some hundreds go away to the Newfoundland cod 

 fishery for the season, and on their return many of 

 them ship as sailors instead of taking to such fisheries 

 as may then be in progress at home. 



Poole to Newhaven — Number op Boats. 



j\lmost every kind of fishing is carried on within 

 the limits of the above range of stations, and we now 

 for the first time meet with sprat fishing by the stow- 

 net. As we have already fully descriljed^ this net, 

 and the manner in which it is worked, it will be 

 unnecessary to say more now than that it is used in 

 the Solent from November to February by fishermen 

 from Itchen Ferry, Cowes, and Portsmouth. Several 

 kinds of fishing on a small scale are carried on in the 

 extensive sheet of water known as Poole Harbour, and 

 among them we may notice shriixiping with a net 

 called the keer-drag — a flat conical bag of very fine 

 mesh fastened to a narrow oblong frame, of which 

 the sides and foot are made of iron and the back of 

 wood. It is in fact very like an oyster-dredge, without 

 any scraper, and works well over smooth ground. 

 Spritsail boats, about 18 feet long, are in general use 

 in Poole Harbour. Oyster dredging in the Solent 



' The Stow-net, p. IGl. 



