270 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



the Culiercoats fishermen the manners and customs of 

 the finny tribes, the probable influence of Aveather on 

 their movements, and the evil effect of " marfire," then 

 illuminating the sea around us, and preparing us for 

 what proved to be an unsuccessful night's fishing. For 

 beautiful as is then the appearance of both nets and 

 fish as they are drawn through the water and hauled 

 over the side of the boat (Plate XII.), such a display is 

 not what the fishermen desire; and many more fish are 

 generally caught when the water is dark and the surface 

 broken than in the glassy calm of a'fine summer's night. 

 Here, too, we first heard the feeble " cheep " of the 

 herring after it had been shaken from the net, and had 

 joined the dead and dying at the bottom of the boat. 



The fishermen of Culiercoats have been fortunate for 

 many years in possessing in the Rev. R. F. Wheeler, 

 the Incumbent of Whitley (a j^arish extending into the 

 village of Culiercoats), a friend who has taken a deep 

 interest in their pursuits, and whose good offices have 

 in every way secured to him the confidence and respect 

 of his parishioners. To this gentleman we are indebted 

 for an account of the present state of the fisheries at 

 Culiercoats, and w^e are glad to say it is much more 

 satisfactory than it w^as expected to be when we were 

 there in 1863. The present prosperity is not, however, 

 entirely due to the ordinary kinds of sea fishing. The 

 herring fishery has been given up to a great extent, 

 owing to the much more profitable employment of the 

 men at tliat season in the net fishery for salmon in the 

 sea, on their way to the Tyne, which, in consequence of 

 the removal of the several obstructions to the fish, has 

 now become a first-rate river.^ But the white-fishino; 

 is still carried on, the number of cobles has considerably 



V More recent accounts speak of a great decline in the Tvne salmon tishcry. 



