FISHINd STATIONS— EN(J LAND. 229 



and tliey are kept down from a quarter of an hour to 

 an liour or more at a time, depending on the extent 

 of ground they liave been over. They are worked with 

 the tide, as in ordinary beam-trawling. A man and a 

 boy in eacli boat are sufficient for managing the full 

 number of nets, as they are hauled in one at a time ; 

 the shrimps are immediately sifted, the small ones being 

 returned to the water, and those of the size permitted 

 by the regulations of the Thames Conservancy are put 

 into the boat's well, to be kept alive until they are 

 taken on shore in the afternoon. They are then boiled 

 and sent by train in time for the London market the 

 next morning. As in all other fisheries, there are good 

 and bad seasons for shrimping, but there are no signs 

 of any permanent decrease in the supply, and for 

 several years past as many as 2000 gallons of shrimps 

 have not unfrequently been sent to London as the joint 

 produce of a day's fishing by the shrimpers from Leigh. 



There is some trawling carried on at the mouth of 

 the Thames both for flat-fish and prawns, or " red 

 shrimps"; but these fisheries are not very extensive. 

 The trawls used there are of the ordinary construction, 

 and have a beam 16 or 18 feet long. 



The boats belonging to the Colchester district are 

 principally engaged in the oyster fisheries ; but in 

 winter stow-boating is extensively worked by the 

 Brightlingsea men. The mode of fishing with the stow- 

 net has been already described.^ 



' Pag;e 161. 



