FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 227 



the manner in which it is conducted. The shrimp-net 

 (Plate X.) used here for catching the brown or true 

 shrimp, is peculiar to the Thames and its immediate 

 neighbourhood, and is practically a beam-trawl with a 

 second beam below instead of a ground-rope. This 

 lower beam is made of a stout piece of oak 9 feet long, 

 2~ inches thick, and 3|- wide, flat above and below ; it 

 is weighted with about 25 lbs. of lead run into two 

 spaces excavated on the upper side, and the under side 

 of the beam is sometimes shod with iron. A stout stick, 

 about 1} foot long, is fixed upright in a chock on the 

 centre of the beam, and supj^orts a pole 6 feet long, and 

 parallel to the lower part of the frame. To these two 

 beams the mouth of the net is fastened, and tightly 

 strained at their ends. The net itself is about 1 2 feet in 

 length, and tapers rapidly to the cod-end. The meshes 

 are necessarily very small, in order to retain the 

 shrimps, and are made of three sizes, I'anging from 

 half an inch square at the mouth of the net to a quarter 

 inch at the small end. A simple but ingenious plan is 

 adopted to prevent stones and small rubbish entering 

 the net whilst it is being towed over the ground, and 

 at the same time not to interfere with the capture of 

 the shrimps. " It is founded on the observed habit of 

 these animals to rise a few inches from the ground when 

 they are disturbed, and consists in leaving an open 

 space of two or three inches between the lower edge of 

 the mouth of the net and the beam to which it is 

 fastened. Through this opening, sand, seaweed, and 

 such small rubbish as is likely to be met with on the 

 shrimping ground, easily pass, whilst the shrimps spring 

 above the gap and find their way into the net. A 

 three-span bridle from the lower beam and the top of 

 the central stick is made fast to the warp by which the 



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